TURN OF THE CENTURY
(for Debbie unable to sleep)

Bright yellow flower
dazed...standing in a vase

tries to remember

a blueness of sky...lost now
beyond the great window pane.

Tries to remember
a joy of sweet falling rain

lost now on the glass

& yet...the memory of it
persists...pursues it...& yet

tries to remember
the pleasure in being a seed

roots reaching into
a sheer richness of darkness

& its opening into sun

tries...remembers the
playfulness of butterflies

clouds chasing a cloud
winds scattering tiny stars

across the beauty of a night

tries &...remembers
the wonder of a bird’s song

the sun forever
almost just...just...out of reach

the sudden silence
after the storm is gone and...and

flower bows its head.

The new young maid is scolded
for not changing the vase.


*

I woke up in the middle of the night and unable to sleep again saw that my friend Debbie had said she was unable to sleep and would someone write her a poem. So I wrote this for her and then...went back to sleep.
Years ago in the long long ago my little girl said she would adore to know how a flower felt( "adore was her new word )so 30 years later late into the night the phrase "how a flower felt" hijacked my mind and this poem was my answer.