Valentine Rose

Because Sunday is full already, my valentine and I went out for sushi the next day. And the sweet waitress gave me a rose left over from the previous festivities. My favorite part of getting flowers is rearranging them after a few days. Once they're past their first beauty, I am freer with the scissors.

The original bouquet is in my flashy Nehi bottle, saved carefully from a trip South after reading about the "Negroes drinking the more vivid flavors of Nehi Cola" in To Kill a Mockingbird. When I taught English, I loved whipping it out when we got to that part of the story.



I planned to put the rose in the little vase, but once in, it looked just silly. So I floated it instead. Lovely.



And then I put the baby's breath by itself in the little glass vase - so much prettier on its own than as "filler."