“Because the branches hang down with blossoms
for only a few weeks, lavender clumps
that let go quickly
and drop to the ground,
because the flowers are so delicate
even their motion through the air
bruises them,
and they lie where they fall
like tiny pouches of shriveled skin,
because our lives are sagging with marvels
ready to fail us,
clusters of faces drifting away,
what’s settled for is not nearly
what we are after, claims
we keep making or are made on us.
But the recurrence of change
can still surprise us, lilac
that darts and flickers
like the iridescent head of a fly,
and the tree making us
look again.”
Daily Dose of Poetry 