The Sweetest Scent

It dances on the dawn

compelling me

into morning’s iridescence.

Now my hopeful legs

stand on skeptical feet

before her.

Pale and trembling

still she seeks the sun --

withered and curled

where once she shone.

When the Storm was spent

not even birds wanted her.

every twig whipped and bent

every leaf tossed

four-corners to the wind.

Stripped to her core

appalling yet unbroken

she waited --

     for silence

     for sunshine

     for strength.

I lean and look

into the agony of

her sparse leaves

to see a blossom…

five alabaster petals

bursting with amber essence.

The sweetest scent of survival.

-----

Grace E. Welch  received an honors degree in rhetoric and professional writing from the University of Waterloo in 1992.  A Canadian, she lives in Bermuda, with her husband and 2 children. Her poems have been published in The New Quarterly, The Feathertale Review, various on-line journals and in the 2006 and 2011 Bermuda Anthologies of Poetry. Her poem, “Return of the Turtle” won first place and "best in show" in the 2006 David Raine Memorial (BAMZ) Poetry Competition.