“Falling Petals” asks us to release even the happiness of flowers—not out of despair, but as an act of survival. This poem is about letting go, remembering without being crushed, and finding a reason to face tomorrow.
Cathy Xinman reimagines the cherry blossom—not as a symbol of delicate beauty, but as something that should fall with weight, intention, and truth. She resists the romantic myth of “cherry blossom rain”, asking instead for petals that drop whole, like camellias and magnolias, unadorned and honest.
What begins as a meditation on a flower becomes a quiet reckoning with grief, pressure, and the instability of the world itself. The poem moves with a documentary clarity, widening from the palm of a hand to the trembling atmosphere of a planet learning to “fluctuate”.
Falling Petals
by Cathy Xinman
Cherry blossoms—because you walked with me
through that brief happiness.
You once rested in my palm, and I beside you.
Blooming and withering coexisted.
I wished you
to fall, each petal weighted,
like camellias dropping whole,
like magnolias parting with dignity.
The wind is no longer your gentleness.
Brilliance and impermanence,
the instant and the shower of petals—
how am I to face your departure?
Look, you do not wish tomorrow’s history
to become a heaviness I forget.
Your arrival was a prayer,
bearing the indifference of spring.
My strength cannot catch up with your airy grace.
Only the air feels comfortable.
Some pressures can only rise straight into the clouds.
They need no oil, no hell.
The human world is learning to fluctuate.
Today, the sun falls more directly.
Summer is only a moment away.
I know stability is not the earth’s duty.
Forget the happiness of flowers—
so I may have a reason to face tomorrow.
Cathy Xinman writes poetry in English and Chinese. Find her English-language collection, Where You Love Yourself, on Amazon. You can also hear her poetry on her TikTok page. The Toronto Spark is on Bluesky @torontospark.bsky.social.
