sunflower

the pale of winter is begun while  
I dream of a time long ago...

as a girl, it was a season of romance,
a fancy I was too young to indulge in,

unless you count my affairs
with living things in the grass-

a warm late morning of an early spring day,
sunlight unblinking in my hair,

I was more aware of the moment,
absorbed in my world near the ground,

shared with a hundred ladybugs
drifting in and swirling round

milling across the yellow of my dress,
their wings tickling my bare knees

cross-legged in the lush tender green
and the down of dandelions,

courting me like a sunflower,
commiserating on my arms-

I asked them to tea and hoped
they would stay until, one by one

                                away....
  
                         flew    

                    all      

             they