A Sunflower

Every hour

Smiles brightly on the world

Shadows creep
Sparrows sleep

Not so, her petals gold and cheery

I’ve often thought

Of you a lot

As wonderful and caring

The finest day of spring
Petals dance on sudden gales
Counting everyone
Before the sinking sun
Fly, fly little wings
Like love that never fails

Shadows begin to wake
To a chorus that is the night
Crickets fiddle, slow
Warblers whistle, low
Shine, shine velvet moon
Till last you fade from sight

Hear the sea in song
   Where the swallows play and die
Starlight in the haze
Flicker fireflies, ablaze
Stay, stay gentle dream
Beneath the candles in the sky

Gray is the season that withers
Blossoms dulled by satin frost
How they sadly fall
Cruel chill, it breaks them all
Rest, rest immortal doves
While winter feigns treasures lost

Crystal brooks still as dusk
Mirror figures warm at heart
Oaks over icy knolls
Sprawling old souls
Flutter, flutter leafless arches
For that single spark of life to start

Blushing through frozen woods
Morning hints at splendor, frail
A starling in the snow
Sleeping on her bough
Wake, wake feathered angel
Sing sweet trills of the nightingale

At last, a welcomed light Autumn breeze,

Whistling passed steepled roofs,

Gently lifting branches of the bowing sycamore trees

Lining dull gray sidewalks still toasty warm

From the sweltering heat of the day before;

Departing summer flees threads of deep purple clouds

Leaching westward from the eastern sky,

Inky streams clawing their way into lighter shades of dusk,

The new season has cast her dye.