Summer-spent

Now bowed and faded, wow-bereft

Her stance, once tall is bent

Will any spy some beauty left

Though fullest bloom is spent?

  

Now one among the many, she

Mostly because she must

Submits with brave humility

To ordinance of Dust

 Now passerbys no longer pause

Mid-stride to stop and stare

And take a moment more because

They think that she is fair

Now nothing stirs a second-look

Save those with keener ear

Who recognize just what it took

To get from there to here

Now dashing chivalry and grin

Dons meeker filament

Will any see the beauty in

A flower, summer-spent

© Janet Martin