On my afternoon slog, I passed a red poppy lying in the road, flattened. I hadn't passed red poppies in any gardens as I  slowly made my way around the block, so it must have been carried at least a short distance before being tossed away. Sometimes seeing such a simple thing inspires entire, complex narratives in my head. Perhaps it fell out of a larger bouquet being carried to a sick neighbor. Or a guy stole it from someone's lawn and was going to bring it to his girlfriend, but as they were talking on their cell phones they got into an argument and he decided not to give it to her after all. Or a group of teens pulled it out of a random garden for some unknowable reason...

Poppy in the road--
someone carried it awhile
then let it fall here.