The Beauty of Slow-Motion Photography

The god-like ability to witness change moment to moment.

Photo by imso gabriel on Unsplash

I held my breath when I saw it for the first time.
A slender thread of green squirming from a seed,
curving and swaying to an unseen piper’s tune
sun-warmed, wind kissed, two nascent leaves
sprouting like wings, then two more.
A thicker stem, more purpose and thrust
until tightly furled, a flower bud appears,
peeling back to reveal a multi-petaled disk
a face radiant and sweet, preening in the sun.
For a pre-ordained moment as alive as it will be.
Its pollen-powdered visage a magnet, a cushion, a stage
until in time the curtain inexorably falls,
slowly, exquisitely, leaving reflexed petals,
withered leaves, and a stem limp with atrophy.

This slow-motion minuet I could watch again and again.
Never losing the thrill of an entire life cycle unfurling before my eyes.
Change not as we see it, year by year, decade by decade.
Beginning, blooming, declining, decaying
so slowly we often ignore the changes,
rebuking attempts to…