On the Statute Against Picking Wildflowers in State Parks

Understand how the taking of one
is also the taking of every other
to come in the next millennium or two.

To study this will help you know
the promethean thing that is picking a flower:
you are taking life from eternity
for a moment’s show on a windowsill.

Peter Spaulding is a graduate student at Marquette University and Assistant Editor at Renascence Journal. His academic interests are Milton and the English Renaissance. He received his M.A. in English Literature from Marquette University and B.A. from John Brown University. He is currently studying Paradise Lost at Marquette.