Nobody wants to buy flowers
At the twilight of civilization
Cities of crumbling towers
Have no use for a frail carnation

Everyone's bent on survival
With a primal competitive temper
Beauty's a luxury rivaled
Only by not a bang but a whimper

By trade I once was a florist
Now my skills are a trivial tome
Alas I'm a bumbling tourist
In a place that I used to call home

And so I indulge in creation
When there's only destruction around
I trim and arrange my carnations
Then I lay my bouquets on the ground

-

And I offer the world another chance
To rekindle its old romance
With color and fragrance and art
Oh, don't lose your heart

-

Seems to me I shall be martyred
For my faith in the eyes of beholders
Nothing remains to be bartered
But my craft and the clothes on my shoulders

But talents of beautification
Carry negative value these days
For too much attention to station
Is attention this frontier betrays

-

Yet I offer the world another chance
To look inward and reconsider its stance
On color and fragrance and art
Oh, don't lose your heart

-

Our final date of existence
Is decreed to at last have befallen
No stretch of human resistance
Can provide a safe bunker to crawl in

So they peer out of their stations
With their softened brows no longer cages
People, like wilted carnations
Getting sun for the first time in ages

It's only a matter of hours
'Til humanity meets its demise
They look to my luminous flowers
As the colors flood into their eyes

They barter me stockpiled defenses
Wrapped in burlap and steel safes and vials
They breathe and awaken their senses
As escapes from them teary-eyed smiles

-

And they offer the world another glance
At the lifeblood of human spirit and dance
Don't wait a lifetime to start
Oh, unprickle your heart
No, don't lose your heart