Sunflower Eclipse
Autumn breezes raked
the ephemeral essence
of withering verdure
across barren dirt
where the balance
of unspent years
laid witness to
the change
of seasons.
Winter would soon
drape the decaying
in ivory sheets of snow
to be stained
with mire
&
swallowed in
hollow crevices
(carved by the hands of time
repeatedly striking the end of an era)
&
consumed
beneath the burden
of
six feet of soil.
Still.
Time marched on.
Summer scorched seeds sown
in the year’s morning
known as Spring.
Bermuda blades,
having just pierced
the earth’s healing wounds,
perished in the drought
while high-desert Fahrenheit
fueled unrelenting winds that
plucked
&
scattered
bouquets of
sun-bleached silk flowers
across a hillside
stitched in stones
&
dotted with decor
left
for the dearly departed
as though the season
(of grief)
was mocking her
in its tattering
of her
(favorite floral)
family.
She gathered each floret
while traversing
toward the cemetery’s egress.
Intricate, iron details
(married in metal
like honeysuckle vines
bound to a garden trellis)
spiraled upward to
an inscribed
passage of peace
that arched over
several young stalks
stretching toward heaven
as they flanked
the two gate posts,
separated
by twelve spires.
There, her umber heart
caught its likeness
in each crepuscular face
surrounded by
yellow-gold petals
as though crowned
with the sun.
She thought:
Like shadows slumber
pitch as night,
(sunflowers sleeping ’til first light)
eclipsed,
horizon’s
hide sun’s rays
behind the path
to morrow’s day
Hers was no uncommon journey,
many survivors
vanquished in the valley,
yet,
knowing that shadows
form in the presence
of illumination,
she found comfort
in realizing that
Light was following her
(like heliotropes track the Sun)
&
had gone before her
to shine on her, again,
once she had reoriented
in the darkness
to the dawn
of a new day.
Though still shrouded
in the umbra
of
the Shadow of Death,
the moment of solace
was etched upon her soul
as she turned her cheeks
(kissed with bereft bitterness)
toward the face of God
and drank
the amber hues
of hope
in full bloom.