The Daisy That Rose
By Dan Bergstein

Next to the rumbling highway
In the wild grasses and weeds
A small purple flower
Talked to her small purple seeds

“You will one day be planted
And then slowly you’ll grow
But listen my children
There are things yet to know”

“You can grow to the left
You can grow to the right
You can grow ziggy and zaggy
Or grow only at night”

“I won’t tell how
Or yell if you’re wrong
But let me just tell you
Of Daisy Susan, the strong”

“Daisy Susan was bright
mighty and tall
She grew straight up from the ground
And reached for it all”

“She pushed up and up
And never looked down
Until one day she popped
Right out of the ground”

“She should have fallen
Without Earth we will die
But she flew higher and higher
Her eye on the sky”

“She launched straight past the buildings
And above the tall trees
She waved to the birds
And winked at the bees”

“She saluted the moon
And bowed to the sun
Yet she never looked down
Going up was more fun”

“Well past the planets
Beyond the North Star
She kept going and going
Blasting farther than far”

“She saw wonderful things
And things that were scary
She met new kinds of bears
And an eye that was hairy”

“She made hundreds of friends
And ventured trillions of miles
She saw thousands of worlds
And millions of smiles”

“She went on and up
To where? No one knows
But she was now famous…
The Daisy that Rose”

“We flowers look up
We gaze at the sky
We know Susan went there
And we all want to fly”

“You can grow to the west
You can grow upside down
You can grow inside out
Or grow all around”

“But with enough work
And with enough time
You can take off
And we’ll cheer as you climb!”

The seeds all smiled
They thought mom was a goof
A flower in space?
Where was the proof!

Yet as they were planted
They reached up to see,
“If it happened to Susan
It could happen to me.”