As we part...!

They adorned my home the past fortnight, each stem handpicked from the flower seller. Their gorgeous velvety petals graced the centrepiece of my living room for nearly two weeks as they shone and glistened against the ceramic walls of their container, sometimes a flaming orange, at other moments a deep amber. They embellished our home, enamoured our guests and witnessed our world all these days, part and parcel of the routine we live.

Today they are more paper than velvet, a lighter yellow than the orange they were, more veinous, fragile, unable to stand as tall as they did all those days. And yet to my eyes their enfeebled beauty appears even more exquisite today.

I want to hold onto them, moving them out of the water to the paper bag, maybe attempt to flatten them out to use as bookmarks...do all I can to will their frail and delicate beauty to last forever...

Letting go is difficult, as it is real, the thoughts and fragrance, the associations forged and memories created linger on ! Their timeless beauty, their poetic pulchritude and the flourish with which they flowered shall be remembered long after they are gone...