Petals

by Rimas Uzgiris

of a wet

pink

rose

on the beach

   after

afternoon showers

wave blithely

in the salty breeze.

They open,

and the amber

    stamen

stares
straight at the

    sun

It
has emerged

from ashen clouds

which

run with the wind—

and

a flock of swallows

scatters

like blown

petals

like

   words

322 Review publishes provocative emerging and established artists. Conceived and operated by former Rowan University graduate students of the Master of Arts in Writing Program, 322 Review is aggressively seeking the best fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, and mixed media works of visual art.