Mild Wild Pinks

How tame and mild are the Wild Pinks,
so-called because they grow in wild places,
because they have so many flower links,
because they grow so free in various spaces.
In upland, marsh, wood, waste, roadside and field,
 we see the Allwood, Indian, Maiden, Moss,
their starlike blossoms' many colored yield
as fifty species' cultivar hundreds cross.
The hardy families Pink, Carnation, Phlox
join Lily, Orchid and Dianthus breeds;
good for ground cover, border, window box,
most show notched petals prettier than weeds.
The Greeks named the Clove Pink the "divine flower"
while God's Pinks brag His versatile beauty power.

                                      -- by Pete Voelz      2002