The bud was given life
By the two gardeners;
One on the earth and the other
In the sky:
The past nourished the bud
With love-minerals
With water-bond—
Now the flower,
The unfading flower
Of wits and will and skepticism
The time will physically fade it
But not from within;
Past present and future
Are made linear
In the chronicles of history
And biographies
The flower knows season’s
Cycle and that
Will not fail
To reach
The inner springs
The past brings
With fragrance
As life goes on
And the seasons get renewed
Out of a wintry distance
In the desert
Dunes and dews
Stay together
Roots of desert flowers
Do not fade,
Are nourished by the tiny drops
Of water stored in the tiny tissues
Of the mute lenses of the eloquent faces
Of flowers fixed on stems
Looking up to the sky
Where past has flown
And sat on a rain-cloud
To touch the present moment
To fill the earth with
Gloom and the dreams of future…
