The Gardenia - Thanks to Billie and Cornelius Eady

The Gardenia by Cornelius Eady The trouble is, you can never take That flower from Billie's hair. She is always walking too fast and try as we might, there's no talking her into slowing. Don't go down into that basement, we'd like to scream. What will it take to bargain her blues, To retire that term when it comes to her? But the grain and the cigarettes, the narcs and the fancy-dressed boys, the sediment in her throat. That's the soil those petals spring from, Like a fist, if a fist could sing.