HELLO TULIPS!

Hello, tulips, don't your know
Stocks today are very low?
You appear so bright and glad,
Don't you know that trade is bad?

You are just as fair to see
As you were in times when we
Rolled in money. Tell me how
You can look so happy now?


Hello. tulips, pink and red,

Gleaming in the garden bed,
Can it be you haven't heard
All the grief which has occurred?
Don't you see the saddened eye
Of the human passerby?
By his frowning, can't you tell
Things have not been going well?


Hello, tulips, in the sun
You are lovely, every one.
But I wonder why don't you
Wear a sad expression, too?
Can it be you fail to see
Things aren't what they used to be?
This old world is all upset,
Why don't you begin to fret?


And the tulips answered me: "Hello.
Nothing's altered that we know,
Warm the sun, and sweet the rain,
Summer skies are blue again.
Birds are singing and we nod.
Grateful tulip prayers to God.
Only mortals fret and strive.
We are glad to be alive."


--Edgar A. Guest
(my favorite poet)