The flower serves as an allegory for the current pandemic we are experiencing. Please be careful and stay safe, inside. I care about every single one of you people out there and I hope you and your family are all well.
A flower that sprung from the tears of a goddess, the petals close as a rainstorm approaches. It's common knowledge, but this knowledge serves no purpose anymore. What do we do now? The petals are falling one by one, withering away as the ignorant world around the flower fails to listen. Fails to understand. We must set rules in place. The people insist we leave the flower alone, the more we stroke the petals, the higher the risk of another dropping. What do we do now? The anemone is gorgeous, we believe that a few interactions shouldn’t be lethal. Yet, here we stand, the beauty serves as a lure towards the toxic plant. Common knowledge serves no purpose, we know now that once the flower closes in on itself, it symbolises abandonment, forsaken affection. What do we do now? The petals that should merely close have fallen instead, and the earth longs to experience the protection the flower once provided. The rainstorm has escalated into a worldwide hurricane, wreaking havoc among our homes.
The ones we are told to rely on believe that to fight this toxic flower, we must inject ourselves with strange, lethal substances. They order us to stand in the light and allow the ultra violent rays of the sun to help us grow. What do we do now? ‘The reliable ones’ are turning our fingers to leaves, our arms are green and tears fall farther than petals. Blood thins to water and we drown in it.
Starved of contact, our chests tighten at the sight of what were once hands capable of being held. Desperation seeps out of every pore, and loneliness is a personality trait. We itch to see the sunlight and bask in its warmth, without realising that every time we succumb to our desires, our toxicity levels rise. We grow more and more toxic until our loved ones fear us and we are left with no choice but to never see the light again. Dismal weather, we survive the days in anguish and yearn for normality. Adapting, stone walls turn to glass as we grow vulnerable. Reckless, we look up to the glaring glow of the sky and remain in the safety of our greenhouse as the orders we must follow tower over our conscience like trees. What do we do now?
The storm arrives and we close in on ourselves, fragile petals seeking shelter. News arrives with what were once the whispers of the wind, now piercing howls as the balance of nature falls. We turn selfish and remain fearful, torn between seeking the oxygen we need or accepting the foreign gas nature provides us with. The pernicious influences of the media has led us to act impulsively, and we step into the light with dazed minds and a lack of control. Our few moments of elation as we relish in heat are short, as our petals wither and collapse on the surface of the earth.
Curse the anemone flower. For every petal that falls, yet another white lily is rooted to the heart of the storm.