The Wallflower (Paries Flos)

I have seen many flowers bloom with vibrant colours and mesmerising hues but my favourite will always be:

Paries Flos - the Wallflower.

No, she is not dressed in extravagant petals or fragrant aroma that entices and bewitches like the rose. No, she does not stretch out to the sky, offering herself to the world like the sunflower. No, she does not have an aggressive, venomous nature like the venus flytrap. She is plain, austere, poised in her silent thoughts, quiet imaginings and enigmatic solitude. It's not that she's small. She's beautiful.

She is never seen. Blends into the walls, they say.

But she observes. She sees things.

She sees the fun and follies of life, the sadness behind smiles, the faces behind the mask, the stuff of humanity, the way the sun touches the treetops and everything that makes you wonder.

She sees and she understands.

But no one sees her. She is the wallflower.

She sits at the sidelines and patiently observes the chatter of others. Of course flowers can't bend thoughts into speech with their lips. That's nonsense! No, they speak with their eyes.

Hers? She says nothing. She doesn't participate.

"I'm beyond that," she thinks to herself.

There is a sort of vanity to wallflowers but remind yourself, it is only talk of self-comfort in the face of loneliness.

One day, she was gone.

"It was an accident", no one said. "The driver feels guilty for what he has done" no one replied, sShe died with her eyes open, glassy and gazing into the skies, as if she was trying to understand the meaning of it all. But she found nothing."

No one said it because no one knew left. The best wallflowers are the ones who disappear without anyone knowing that she was even there at all.

But I did.

You know, she would look at love and scorn at it. And then, she would scorn at herself for secretly wanting it too. To feel someone's loving eyes and his touch at her leaves and plain petals. To be noticed, looked upon and be loved.

It's funny. She didn't notice me.

Maybe it's because I am a wallflower too and wall flowers are never seen.