A preserved poppy is frozen in time

its petals forever fresh

The sprouted stem is not yet strangled,

it is young and full of life

Its two sepals are bloomed to fullness,

green and lush with naive love

Light shines through its resin cage

and it glows from inside out

Yet some years yonder it may begin

to rot from it’s pistil and stamen

Resin chemicals will start to poison

the flower’s fragile chloroplast

Its stem will someday start to spoil

and crack under its cover

And the petals that in past were pretty

will die to dust and decay

But without the resin, the flower

would crumble and collapse

So the poppy can do nothing

but stay put while it withers

away