Ephemeral delight, too brief your presence; you
flit around, so granting us no bumptious view
of entertaining beauty on marionette wings, with
not so much as a rattle or snap or clap to detract.

You come on soft winds and hazy summer nights
to remind us of other delights we may have also
forgotten in our raucous extended days; sad,
we oft imagine your gift of beauty boxed in glass.

Like those things around us too soon misunderstood
for what they should have been to too-hurried lives;
we miss the joy and the elation of nature's bounty
as she constantly provides a buffet for the senses.

What is it we may have missed in our haste to taste
too much of the efficient, instant, myopia reviewed;
and we once again believe ourselves underprivileged
for a daily blessing we again failed to lookout and see.

© Ali Cecilie Sonder 7-2000