the queen of wildflowers

lady slippers

today, my feet return me

to where I hoped to find

lady-slippers, a gorgeous pink wildflower,

so exuberant and perfect in its beauty

it is as an indulged queen to other flowers,

I come around a bend in the trail,

and there it is!

I am touched,

and my camera touches it,

and then its sisters, again and again,

so that I can remember this moment of glory,

high up on the mountain earlier today,

I found “sarvis” a-bloom:
a tree exuberant,

one who rushes to be and flower

when winter slips away enough to allow it,

two days pass, and in another part of the forest,

I reprise discovery with two perfect yellow lady slippers,

who have even ruled human feet

to make a side trail to find them,

if a flower blooms in the forest,

and someone is there to see it, and appreciate it,

we are richer. . .

is it? 

by Henry H. Walker

April 29, ’16