Moonflower

Each month, another bloom is born,

Beginning closed and dark,

But bit by bit, each night and morn,

All silver-white and stark,

It blossoms, filled with gossamer dreams

Of subtle light and spark

Reflected from the stars’ bright streams,

Then petals fall and mark

The cycle of all life we know:

To grow and gleam, then, it would seem,

To wither, but in memory to glow.

Last week, I was out walking and saw a flower pointed down toward the ground, facing away from the sun. Of course, it made me think of sunflowers and their following of the sun. It made me wonder what a "moonflower" would do. Eventually, I decided that it would focus more on the cycle of growth and diminishing suggested by the phases of the moon. Each month, the flower would produce a bloom that opens, then closes, but remains in our memories - suggesting our own cycles of life on the Earth.