given water, the pansies,
begonias and day lilies thrive
steaming day after day they glow
in the shimmering prairie air

they are rooted in exuberance,
ecstatic in the searing sunlight,
enthralled by howling thunderstorms
that knock them flat to earth

until the light again draws them up
as the life pulsing in every cell
sings hymns of praise in riotous colors
all the blazing brilliant day long

©John Greenleaf-Maple – text and photo 7/17/17