Lyn Coffin

The Flower

for Austin

An open meadow, high in the mountains.

I sit cross-legged in a full skirt,

comfortable on the warm spring ground,

and there is suddenly a flower in my lap,

petal overlapping petal,

white as a formal invitation

in the sky-blue valley of my skirt.

And I take the tender blossom,

and lift it to my face.

Its sweet, wild and eager fragrance

tells me of imagined gardens and unvisited meadows

 

And I lift my eyes and see now-

this kind of flower is abundant

in this high meadow;

I still hold it a miracle

this singular bloom has come to me,

brought by the breezes into my lap.

I arise then in gratitude,

and take the blossom to my mountain home,

and float it in a clear glass bowl.

I smile at the flower,

at its multi-layered form and fragrance….

I will be smiling

even when the flower is gone….

Even when I am gone,

I will be smiling.