For Cathy On Her Graduation

Moon Flower

Your long stalk deep into the ground.
Lanky branches serving abundant leaves
to gather light, energy, prana.

Draw up. Pull it up, into your bud all that nourishes you.
Extend with everything you've got. Let out the beaming
yellow flower, mistakable for the sun and shine with your smile
chasing the source from East to West and East to West again.

How delicate, vulnerable that smile is, but never-mind. Give it
anyway, even as it turns cold, the yellow fades, petals drop to the
Earth
for your children's seeds next season.

You will stand, grey and white atop that tall stalk of yours...
grey and white like a proud moon resting on a cane of sugar.
You will stand and nourish the next season for us all with the
sweetest seeds, the gifts you drop behind for us simply by being
you.