evelyn rainey

Abandoned Beauties

She was absolutely beautiful, in my opinion, but very few people would think so. She sat in a puddle of water, squished in between brittle brown ivy sprigs and the barren branches of a lifeless jade. She had flung a few pale pink flowers up from her central crown. They were ruffled and shaded to a darker hue along the edges. Most of her flowers had shriveled weeks ago and stuck to the dust-clogged fur of her leaves or hung over her pot’s sides like abandoned parachutes. African Violets do not have a scent. Their petals have an iridescence which, in nature, attracts moths by moonlight. Her blossoms caught and held the light from the overhead neon sign flashing ‘Special Sale’.