A magnolia has white flowers
That always smell so bad
They harden into pinecones
In the fall
A magnolia never wonders
Why the skies refuse to cry
And it never thinks about
What others have at all
Magnolia leaves are yellow
Like an opal apple’s skin
That your neighbor would cut for you
With a hug when you walked in
Magnolia leaves on the table
When your family comes to eat
Magnolia blossoms hardened
Into pinecones at each seat
And it sits and waits and wishes
As it stands in your front yard
And it never stops to ask you
Why the world just seems so hard
Always on the brink of death
Your mother said it’s true
But magnolia always made it
And it taught one thing to you
Rivers lakes and oceans
Waterfalls all the way down
Will harden into islands
Full of beaches and hard ground
And though you wish for water
In the thickness of a drought
If there’s one thing that you’ve always known
Magnolias go without.