A Purple Stem (Nature Poem)

A purple stem

To
Many it’s just a cut flower
Just a stem of gladiolus
But, for me
It has been a friend
Of decades
Once our garden
Had a patch, nay
A crop of 30 – 40
Gladioli!
Mostly they were 
Of purple hue, with silky
Texture
They’d last there almost two months 
In the front yard
Next to the driveway
Dancing in the wind
Glistening with the pearly
Raindrops
Year after year
They blossomed without fail
In this freezing zone 5 -
Till a jealous friend
Cast her glance
With a sly comment:
“How come you get
such lovely long floral stems?
I never had luck with ‘em”
That’s it - killed them all.
Or it could be due my own neglect
They perpetually need fertile soil with good
Drainage. They don’t like getting
Their feet wet or cold during the heavy
Autumn downpours and severe
Snow storms.

But
Let’s leave it all aside for now.
Let me enjoy
This single stem from
This season, happily 
Ensconced in a porcelain vase
Last year we lost quite
A few to a pesky virus or thrips; the buds
Didn’t even open – a blackened bud or
A premature disfigured clump of dry petals
Is all we got
But we’re lucky this year
Got five or six stately lanterns
Of colorful gladioli 
Ranging from purple to pink
One even with crinkled petals
And a dose of central dark patch
Now I am transported to the
Carefree days of my college days
Oh, those freshman English lectures
From an elderly scholar with 
Utter devotion to the subject and
Deep love to the young students
He
Told us the meaning of “unheard melodies”
And what is beauty:
Still to this day
It rings in my mind the line,
“A thing of beauty is a joy forever”
This little six-inch stem of
Gladiolus proudly proclaims (confirms)
It. 

Copyright 2026 by the author