three lonely California poppies showed up vagabonding on my Colorado doorstep and when I greeted them it was obvious they were too shy to ask for water, but I provided baths and talked kindly to them, and they hinted that they recognized a compatriot California native in me, but that I looked terrible, far too pale for someone borne and bred in the Golden State, and I suggested that they compare notes with me again after time spent in Colorado, but alas after three days of their glorious orange plumage, they perished, and went all to pieces, waiting patiently for my condolences on my Colorado doorstep