Poetry

We Forgot the Blooming

A Poem on the Colors We Leave Behind

Photo by Dominik Scythe on Unsplash

back in the spring rains
the irises spilled indigo into the world,

an effusion of sweet release —
then just as suddenly

dropped their color-spent party clothes
in puddles on the bedroom floor

and got to the serious business
of living under the summer sun —

we forgot the blooming,
and sundried breezes have blown

their dust away —

© John Allison Cannon

The poem began as a fragment in the spring when irises were in bloom, but when I returned to work a little more on the lines, the moment was gone and the bright colors had faded and fallen away.