Lillian here, hosting Quadrille Monday at dVerse, the virtual pub for poets around the globe.

WARNING: I am recovering from right shoulder surgery and, after 6+ weeks, have only had my very immobilizing sling off for 2 days. Yes, I am right-handed. That means I may be slow in responding to posts, but I WILL respond! My arm just gets very sore when I am at the computer.

First things first: what is a quadrille? It is
* a form of poetry created by dVerse
* a poem of exactly 44 words, sans title
* the body of the poem must include one particular word (or a form of the word) provided within the prompt
* a synonym for the given word does NOT fulfill the prompt

Autumn has arrived in Boston – at least temperature wise. The trees are still vibrantly green. I am however, very sad to say, my beautiful geraniums have become very leggy and are dropping their petals quickly. Somehow, replacing their vibrant red, hot pink, and coral flowers with fall bronze and yellow mums doesn’t thrill me. I love it when the trees kick up their branches in the wild fall colors of a can-can dancer….but I do love spring and summer flowers. Since my birthday is in May, from the earliest birthday party I can remember, my mother always had lilacs on the table beside my birthday cake. And of course, given my name, I’ve always been partial to lily-of-the-valley!

Care to know a few interesting facts about flowers?
* In Victorian etiquette, flowers were used to deliver messages that couldn’t be spoken aloud. Flowers handed over with the right hand signaled “yes” and flowers handed over with the left hand signaled “no”. Hmmmm…..I wonder what the questions were that could not have an answer given aloud???

*Flowers chosen for a wedding bouquet are often symbolic. The wedding bouquet of Kate Middleton was all white and included lily-of-the-valley (representing trustworthiness, purity), sweet William (gallantry – and of course the name of the groom), hyacinth (loveliness), myrtle (love in marriage), and ivy (continuity).

For this prompt, given the chaos of the times, I was struck by the first stanza of Tim Dlugos’ poem White Petals:

White petals
drop into the dark river.
Heedless of political significance,
they ride out to the sea like stars.

Have you guessed it? The word to be included in your Quadrille today is “petals” – or you may use a form of the word as in petal, or, if you use poetic license, petalicious!

New to dVerse?  Need to be refreshed on the rules? Here’s what to do:

• Write a quadrille (a poem of EXACTLY 44 words, not including the title) AND include the word “petals” or a form of the word within the body of the poem. A synonym for petals does not fulfill the prompt. It must be the word, or a form of the word.

• Post the poem to your blog AND add the exact URL for your poem to Mr. Linky below.

• REMEMBER to either TAG dVerse in your post, or include a link at the end of your poem that leads readers back to dVerse (https://dversepoets.com). 

• If you do not TAG or include a link to dVerse at the end of your post, I will gently remind you to do so. After all, this will increase your readership and comments, and others will find dVerse and hopefully join in the fun. If you do not add the TAG or link after my reminder, I will remove your post from Mr. Linky. I do not want to do that! So please do include the TAG or link!