bellis perennis

Rising from the loam, presuming nothing
She takes her place in the congregation

Her saffron face shines warmly
Encircled by an aureole of reticent alabaster

Simple, even plain in her apparel
She finds fancy is frivolous
An unnecessary vanity

Fellow supplicants attired in the finest garments
Fuchsia
Scarlet
Magenta
Crimson
(Red, really. Such pretense)
Bow down and rise up in self-aware piety

Are those prayers answered faster?
Better?

Her only adornments are hope and innocence
An instinctive modesty, not a conscious constraint

Her contrition is genuine
Asking nothing for herself
Exposing beauty of another kind
A virtue that shames the more rococo

It is a magnetism difficult to describe
Harder yet to name
A persistent and enduring winsomeness

bellis perennis