Incompleteness

Flittering white wings of gossamer

Push away from the pull of grasses,

Searching for life in the orange centre of yellow petals.

A bouquet beckons.

Breeze dancing,

Not that one,

This way,

Maybe there,

Yes.

A brief yes

Then push away again,

And then again.

 

Completeness

Delicately crested quail leads his seed,

Preceded by his black asterisk sprouting ahead.

Brown spotted fluff-balls scamper helter-skitter,

Little legs blurring across the open garden fringe,

Girls settling onto cool soil then digging furiously

Creating a deep refreshing bowl,

With bits of food

Here

And there.

Tricksters hide in the low rhododendrons

Bolting out to scare the bowl sitters.

Watchful hen chirps a boundary,

Coaxes her energetic dozen to this side

Then to that side

Of the wispy lattice deer fence.

Fluff-balls ricochet off the barrier,

Upset that they cannot move forward,

Until they find a gate to squeeze under.

Chubby fluff-ball, frustrated,

Reluctant to ruffle the fluff

Pokes a head in

But not through,

Marches with angry little legs

Back and forth along the barrier,

Finally pushes through the gate’s opening

To disappear into the crowd.

Crested quail, brash but ever watchful,

Chatters ownership of the garden

And proudly follows his contributions to Life.

 

Completed

Their weeks-long battle for supremacy

Confirmed

The end-of-the-row Sunflower

Is largest!

Bending deeply with the weight.

Then, in a last-week move,

Growing before your eyes

In the blazing sun,

Watered daily,

The skinny one rises high

And higher,

And highest!

As the dethroned elder spreads the heaviest load

Stooping in age, with the seeds for more life.

The runt in the shadows

Flowers last

And longest

In brighter yellow flowers

And deeper brown seeds,

Feeding late-comers

In the garden of life.

 

Forever

Not-life,

Feldspar glistens

Mica shines

Silica endures

In the ever burning solar rays

Fragments of the all-encompassing mantel,

Displaying.

Supporting.

Forever.

 

George