09-12-2014, 10:42 PM
I thought this poem was clear. But since it seems like a few people are struggling, I'll just give a line by line paraphrase
The petal that attracted all the bees during the summer,
and drew them out of their hives, dancing around,
still hang on. But at this point, they're no different than a terminal patient. Although technically 'alive,'
he only really lives as a host to disease:
unconscious, left too weak to even pray to God
and beg for his life. Similarly, these petals are gonna die.
They’ll bend at last to fall in autumn;
they’ll droop and sag to snag the harvest breeze.
That’s something, isn’t it? The way they fade,
and whither up as bug food, then as dust?
This otherwise sad thing - the beauty of flowers, turning to dust - only makes me smile
because I know one day, you’ll be afraid of an identical fate…
you’ll notice that you also wilt, and just
how short the time you have left until you are food for bugs.
The petal that attracted all the bees during the summer,
and drew them out of their hives, dancing around,
still hang on. But at this point, they're no different than a terminal patient. Although technically 'alive,'
he only really lives as a host to disease:
unconscious, left too weak to even pray to God
and beg for his life. Similarly, these petals are gonna die.
They’ll bend at last to fall in autumn;
they’ll droop and sag to snag the harvest breeze.
That’s something, isn’t it? The way they fade,
and whither up as bug food, then as dust?
This otherwise sad thing - the beauty of flowers, turning to dust - only makes me smile
because I know one day, you’ll be afraid of an identical fate…
you’ll notice that you also wilt, and just
how short the time you have left until you are food for bugs.