i always liked that brautigan poem about baudelaire and the flower eaters

The neighbor whose cat I'm taking care of for the next few days has brought me flowers!

When I first moved into this apartment, I bought some flowers at the shop on the way home from the subway and put them in a bowl on my dining room table and said, yes, this is a thing I shall do all the time! I will always have fresh cut flowers. And then I forgot about it for the last five months or so.

When I moved to New York, I was surprised at how inexpensive and omnipresent the flowers are; who, exactly, is buying all these flowers? You'd think, just from looking at any city block, that New Yorkers must exchange flower bouqets like so many casual compliments tossed off upon meeting. Oh, your sweater is lovely. Is that argyle? Have some peonies.