It was just today I received my first bouquet,
From my boyfriend on my eighteenth birthday.
There's carnations and gladioli,
sweet william and roses
And between all the fern leaves,
some tiny primroses.

There's red and blue, yellow and white
And the whole thing is a pleasing sight.
All that time these flowers
took to grow,
What a terrible shame that so
soon they must go.

For they'll fade and wither and finally die,
No more will they be pleasing to the eye.
But while they're here I can
look and admire
And of their fragrance I'll
never tire.

So I sit and I look at their beauty and grace
And for a while they'll have pride of place.

                            Mavis Ollier