The Flower that grew in the shade

A farmer met and married a wife Who wanted flowers to fill her life He gave her a plant That was partly grown But the wife was angry and left it alone She put the plant in a cold dark place And denied it love , turned away her face She preferred instead to start anew But starved of light only strange things grew And worse when she looked at the plant once more It had blossomed with flowers that hung to the floor She cast it out so it could not succeed And turned instead to her gloom grown weed But her house was dark and full of shade And more and more as her affections fade Her weed would not flower, it was small and plain And her twisted heart showed it only pain And worst of all when she stepped out her home Where she’d cast out the plant, it now was grown She was filled with anger when she turned to see The plant had gone and there stood a tree Out of the shade the plant had matured And grown beautiful and strong and self-Assured And the farmer wife ran back inside To scowl and stew and hate and hide the tree now lived in light and grew And could share her life with others too And the farmer who lived with his wife in shade Gazed out the window and felt afraid That he had a heartless, cold and uncaring wife And he would be the lesser for all his life And the secret heart of this storey is bare A little girl should be shown love and care And anyone who shows them a hint of hate Deserves their cold and loveless fate!