Leafy, gangly branches
bowed by their own weight
insinuate a canopy
over the garden walk

Each overgrown stalk
tipped with a star-shaped bloom,
pink-white, translucent,
offering cups of nectar,

punctuated by a yellow pistil,
erect, swollen with pollen,
awaiting a tryst
with a bee’s leg.

And along each bowing branch,
bulbous buds, green and engorged
with furled, invisible petals,
spring-coiled and ready to burst

in tomorrow’s sun.


[First published in Blindman’s Rainbow, Winter 2000/2001]

09/30/2001

Posted on 09/30/2001
Copyright © 2025 Bruce W Niedt