Daylillies

          With the palette of a raw sunset

          Daubed impasto, on a ground of a limescent cascade

          Bursting from the cool blue shade

          Of the walnuts and maples,

          Breeze-brushed ripples

          Swelling over the battlements of sun-bleached beams   

(As some fortress of Vauban’s the terraced garden seems),

Floral trumpets, in their voices of colour, proclaim

The end of Thallo’s regency, fitful and unsteady,

And the arrival proper of Auxo’s reign, brief, alas, but heady,

The orange blossoms glow

Like childhood summers

Whose embers are yet warm in memory.