There, on the veranda,
in the green light,
a breath of wind
rustles the jacaranda; purple petals flutter
and fall, like bruises
on a dew-drenched lawn. She rocks to sleep
as the chair sings
its own, sweet elegy
to the passing of time. Her nightgown flaps
on the line – winged
like a bird in a no-hope bid
to take to the skies. The breeze bends
the needle-thin stems
of the new-sprung fritillaria; white heads bowed,
she bends with them.
Her soft, satin shawl
slips from her arms –
slow-dances; wooed by the thrum
of raindrops
on the old, tin roof. Deep inside,
a malignancy grows –
spreads insidious
branches; blossom ever-opening; pale
as dogwood and deadly
as the canker
that strangles the rose. Her necklace glows green
through jade
that becomes her so.