We drive by the flowers...

We drive by the flowers

    Looking through glass,
Missing the essence
    Of all that we pass.

We see only colors
    With no shape or line,
Their beauty and meaning
    Lost to our minds.

The soft velvet petals,
    The stripes of the bee,
The texture of leaves,
    We no longer see.

Just flashes of color
    For instants of time,
Blurred by the speed
    Then erased from our minds.

The fragrance they offer,
    Their perfect design,
Held only in memories
    From a “once-upon” time.
    _____________

I’m afraid that is not
    How I thought it would be.
I thought that the flowers
    I’d have time to see.

But now they’re just colors
    I see through the glass,
That fade in the mirror
    As I hurry past.

Colors that blend
    Ever closer to gray,
As I keep moving faster
    With each passing day.
    _____________

We drive by the flowers
    Looking through glass,
Missing the essence
    Of all that we pass.

Joseph Weilenbeck 1993