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Sunday, November 23, 2014

Temporary Enlightenment

The rosemary plant lives inside in winter

    (and a good thing, too).

I water it. I cut off the occasional branchlet

    to add to a stew.

I notice—oh, dear rosemary!—its warm scent

    when I brush against it.

But mostly I ignore it.

When I share space with it 

     I am usually reading,

an activity about which I am single-minded,

to say the least.

 

So I don't know why one winter day

I looked up from my book

and gazed idly in the direction of the

    rosemary plant.

The sun bounced off the snow in the yard

    and hit my rosemary full tilt.

Holy cow! I said.

The needles on that plant are sunlit.

If I were to paint it, each horizontal needle

     would be a white hyphen.

I began to scan the plant

to count how many needles would need

     the white-paint treatment.

 

But then I blinked

and the sun went behind a cloud.

Within seconds the illuminated needles faded

    to dull gray-green.

The rosemary returned to its normal,

    sweet-smelling,

    nondescript

    self.

 

 
Copyright © 2014 Ann Tudor

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