Spring collection

i just wish, it would last a little longer

Spring (1563) - Giuseppe Arcimboldo (Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando, Madrid)

A poem about the beauties I saw on the runway. See notes below.

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in the flashing light, 
of the midday May sun,
the models show up,
on the green carpet.

i find my front-row seat, 
in the high grass,
next to the judges, 
the blackbirds and bees,
all bewildered by the thousands 
of contestants, 
claiming their attention
and a place in the spotlight.

backstage, they’re getting ready,
the thin and swaying, like glossy buttercups,
the tall vain, with the bold red confidence of tulips,
the joyful, wide-eyed like daisies with outsize petal smiles,
the self-made, posing proud, like full-blown dandelions,
even the timid wallflowers twirl,
in the glaring air. 

now they are all at their peak
bloom, wearing outfits, 
created for the one day,
they knew would come,
no place for evergreens,
this is fashion.

i sit still and watch,
as the bloom hurries across the stage,
the fading beauties,
leave their outfits,
where they fall.

i slowly breathe in the air,
thick with remains,
of their perfume,
and the light turns down low,
and i hold on to my ticket,
thankful for this year’s show -
i just wish,
it would last
a little longer.

The origin

Every year since my son was two, he and I have taken a canoe trip to the lakes in Sweden. He is bigger now, and the trip is different: he runs off by himself into the forest and leaves me to silence. This May, on a midday break in the meadow by the water, I sat still and watched as a show came on. Thousands of flowers, all out at once, all dressed up, all in a hurry, like models at a runway show staged for an audience of blackbirds and bees. I had a front-row seat and nowhere to be. That’s when I started writing. And just like that, as we packed up camp, the bloom was gone.

No place for evergreens, this is fashion.

What never fades is never in fashion; beauty is beautiful because it fades.

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