Before the Petals Fall

BEFORE THE PETALS FALL Fragrance beyond perfume An intoxicating beauteous bloom Kissable touchable tender lips Numberless pert petal tips - As scented wavelets pause Mid sea and shores - Bathing in the soft light So subtle so slight Till they blush shady-hued. Never before viewed; Never look again nor speak Of this fragile moment unique: Smoothly silken like the tress On a young girl’s best dress Folded and curved, and in the breeze moved. Peached and heliotroped and mauved, In recumbent cascading Layers pressed together and fading, Edged and fronded in frills pink Of trembling readiness on the brink To float down to the shore - One touch and they are no more.