If the Poem Is Broken, How Can the Sunflowers Breathe?

They can’t. The desert sunflower,
the slender sunflower,
Nutall’s sunflower,
the Kansas sunflower
and the California sunflower
will all hang their heads.
Stomata will close
on diamond-shaped,
lancelike, and oval leaves.
You must help me keep
the poem intact
to let the sunflowers breathe.

Lucille Lang Day


From The Book of Answers, first published in Brevities