Changing seasons

May comes and goes as quickly as roses
Bloom and fade. Only green thumbs and thorns
Abide. Rain falls occasionally; from time to time
Bushes burnish, turn brown and die. Their roots
Either thirst too much or founder in a flood.
Some common ground for growing plants is needed.
Fertile does as fertile is. Cardinals select highest
Limbs of trees to nest in, ignore, neglect
Bird houses I have tied with strings or used
Coat-hangers I have straightened and strung
In suspension from branches to hold homes for them.
Grass is kept separate from weeds by intensive
Spraying. Heliotropes seek and worship their god
Of sunshine. Scuppernongs are born, begin
To grow a kind of grape for August harvesting.
Althea blossoms, blooms called hollyhocks.
Some are white alone, some
White with reddish-purple centers. Camellias
Bide their time and wait--their turn will come.
Lizards eat insects in the greenery on my porch.
The cadence here is intermittent rest between
Many flashes of fervid action where going forth
Furnishes attractions that rarely retract themselves.
Constant motion indemnifies its flow from any loss.
Flora and fauna flare and sprout;
In flurries water runs, retreats to its redoubt.
Summer waxes, springtime wanes.
One season's play is nearly done.
Contests of another are just begun.