The Flowering Quince

Cherry

By Schubert

Thu, 27 Feb 2025
  • 119 reads
9 comments
 

Standing at the sink with my hands in the bowl

And staring down the garden blankly

I noticed the shrub staring back at me

Shouting 'Oi, look at me,

It's freezing out here

and I'm doing my best to outdo the rest

and flaunt my attributes frankly'

 

By frankly I mean open, up front and blatant

My gorgeous red flowers no longer latent

Defying the Winter while the others sleep on

Hiding their charms from Oberon

I'm here and shouting and waxy and sprouting

A trollop of a shrub resenting the snub 

While you stand there scrubbing and doubting

 

I told you I would when you tied me back

Strapped me to the fence behind the immense

Behind the flashy, the gaudy and the trashy

I said 'you wait and see how I bide my time,

Wait patiently behind lupin and lime

The all seeing eye with infinite hack

The never-sleeper, the insomniac

 

So here I am, doing my thing

Waxy and gorgeous and covered in bling

While you stand there with eyes cast down

Ignoring my beauty, improving your frown

I'm flowering quince, a defyer of odds

A thing of beauty created by gods

Think of me fondly as I herald the Spring

 

 

Certificate U
Poem
Humour

Comments

Submitted by Turlough on

Yay! Herald the spring! You can't beat a few flowers in the garden at this time of year.

Our quince blooms but much later on than this. It must be another case of that east European 'tomorrow will do' attitude.

Great rhyming here in your poem, by the way.

 

Turlough

Submitted by Schubert on

Thanks Turlough. It's an amazing plant and has been producing waxy red flowers all Winter, against all odds. It's inspirational, hence the quick poem this afternoon.

Submitted by Rhiannonw on

That sounds like a joyful shout in your garden. That's not the kind that produces the pear-like fruit is it? Rhiannon (Indoors my sister gave me a winter rose Christmas time and it is so exuberant and brilliant white. I think it can be planted out afterwards. )

 

Submitted by Schubert on

Yes, it is fruit producing Rhiannon, it produced one small green apple type fruit last year and we're expecting better this year as it  expands along the fence, although what we'll do with it I've no idea.

Submitted by Di_Hard on

I love the character you have given your Quince :0) She is a Toughie, flowering all Winter! "Covered in bling" is a brilliant description :0) Agree with Turlough, some great rhythm and rhymes, I really enjoyed reading, Thank You

 

Submitted by Insertponceyfre... on

Yes, I love your quince character too and I really enjoyed this poem - thank you for sharing. I used to have a flowering quince in my back garden - I don't remember it being so early. I'm trying to remember when the fruiting quince at the front blossoms - not for a while sadly.. Yours sounds spectacular! Is that your pic?

 

Submitted by Schubert on

I was too idle to go out and take a picture, so I just borrowed one from the net. 

Submitted by Rhiannonw on

Oh, that's what I was thinking about, it's the fruiting quince that produces the big pear-like fruit isn't it? Is the fruit from this flowering quince edible? Is it used in making preserves? Rh

 

Submitted by Insertponceyfre... on

Yes Rhiannon - mine has lots of them - golden and fragrant and very big!