Ranunculus Bouquets at the Market

The peach flowers are closest to the front of the stall, with deep pink bouquets beside them and yellow ones farther along. Most are open enough to show the rings of thin petals around their centers. A few round buds still sit above the paper sleeves on long green stems.

Someone has left a loose bunch on the bench beside a ball of twine. Fallen petals lie in the cracks between the boards, below the scratched metal buckets. Their pale rims repeat across the picture, but the dents and mottled patches differ from one bucket to the next. Above the flowers, a cream market umbrella catches the sun.