Ode to a Wild Sunflower

Last blossom of the dry and brittle season.

last blossom of the dry and brittle season
when hope stands alone on burned dusty verges
radiating and radiating and radiating
brilliant, multi-petaled joy that
arcs with the sun, a
joy unundiminshed by early frosts that
whisper of the winter
all must face,
I must face,
my own self a last blossom, a
dry and brittle whisper
moved by early frosts
but moved too
by a blossom of
radiant, brilliant, multi-petaled joy.