Maguerite's Charms

MARGUERITE’S CHARMS Rainy day finally gave way to intermittent sun - Walked out with camera before rain should return, And fell in love, mesmerized, helpless, captivated. Stopped at garden with waist-high iron railings, riveted, And its flowers stunned me. Never knew you could get So many blooms into a pocket-handkerchief spacelet. Hanging baskets overpouring their petunias down To meet roses climbing tenaciously up the trelliswork brown; And tubs along the short path, each tub - afire and flaming With joyful marigolds of yellow and orange - jostling For space to get fired up and send their glow Over the path’s six stepping stones, submerged below Spreading alyssum and spotted lobelia, which crept Cautiously over the bottom of the railings stepped. But filling this mini-realm were the marguerites’ charms, Reaching through their tiny prison’s bars into my arms, Offering their open hands in supplication, white innocence, Wide spread, full of generous, pure opulence : Golden topaz seed-centres glossed with raindrop spot. Oh I touched them as I might an uncertain cat, careful not To spill their watery yolks. They ignored the iron bars with ease, And begged me to pluck them, waving steadily in the breeze, And invading the footpath outside the garden with their whirl, Looking me in the face and smiling irresistibly like a pretty girl, Welcoming, flirting, lovely, brushing my fingertips to invite, Large,perfect, pristine, fragile, graceful, white. Took some quick pictures as the rain came suddenly back there, As it does in every head-over-heels love affaire.