Cynara

Take the bud before it blooms -

discard the choke of infancy,

cut out its bracts and heart:

artichokes belong to men,

thorned emblems of a god's scorn,

where their ashen green scales

of exile grow as Cynara,

rooted in the dirt of humanity.

Only a monk will let one flower

in cobalt inflorescence; pollen

and nectar for the lust of bees -

I have been raised

in a monastery garden, a living symbol

of the price of rejection, my prickles,

the fruit of abandonment.
 

I grow artichokes every year so that I can have them in bloom, I like watching bees roll and bathe in the flowers. Here is a video of them: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=vM14zfgv1Es (the music on the video is very annoying though...)

Image is from here: https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Anton_Seder_Artichokes.jpg

And also on Twitter: https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Artichoke_in_bloom.jpg

https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Osias_Beert_(I)_-_Still_life_with_artichoke.jpg