Indigo Memorial Flag
Early June is a fanfare of colour
wherever in her sanctuary
the Widow Wyile’s eyes rove
The visual chorus at the house front
rings out in overlapping orbs
abounding cornets
centering on a beguiling bush
of buttery-cream blooms wafting vanilla-spice
flanked by a smaller one with orange globes
and the deep pink trumpets of their larger cousins
Further back the profusion of winding grapevines
have found their way into the laburnum
whose dangling garlands of yellow
dance in the breeze
while on the other side
of the rewild-tending garden
the host of pale pink and violet lovelies
some with especial graceful curve
pleasingly common inedible legume cones
that herald summer in Atlantic Canada
thrive with nitrogen fixing pupose
in the alleged vegetable plot
hiding self-seeded cabbage types
amid the mixed density of plant life
that includes mustards and their ilk
and majestical mulleins in layered rosettes
of broad wooly leaves
The time of irises has also come
and bearded ones arise
from the overtaking mounds of oregano
stately yet fragile
and lo
for the first time
since they were planted
some fifteen or more years hence
stands one elegant siberean stalk
bearing a blossom
that slowly
over the days of its opening
reveals a second
nestled close
side-by-side
Perhaps
muses the Widow Wyile
a gift
to mark
ten years coming up
since her beloved’s passing
from this physical realm
a solitary flag
deep purple blue
in-di-go
above the stand of narrow blades
soon to open
soon to open
then suddenly
o p e n
r a d i a n t
u n f u r l e d
Decorus triple
triple petals
saying
not forgot
