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Making Tissue Paper Flowers
for Dad's 100th
by Mary Langer Thompson

I teach her, age 10,
the secrets in the folds of
the golden paper squares.
She hangs a pipecleaner
over a middle
then pulls and fluffs
the thin petals
beginning at the center
to make a fragile bloom,
careful not to tear
the scalloped edges.
"Tell him I made them for him,"
she says, marveling that
someone could become so old.

She runs outside to practice her
bird whistles, just
beginning to learn the
cries and songs of
lives well lived.

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