Late November Flowers

This year the flowers keep on coming:

calendula, fuchsia and the roses,

even dandelions, singly or in pairs

and small cheerful faces of buttercups.

Moss still creeps across the tarmac

over the kerbs, nothing curbing it.

The fungi has grown since late July

and it is now nearly December.

The first heavy frost lies on the lawn

moulting as bright sun pushes it away.

Long, low strokes of blinding wintry light

still have the power to turn rime to steam.

The deep blue bowl of the sky above

rings to winter's short day song.

This light, this brightness more precious

as a foil to the darkness of the long nights.

And those flowers? The cold will bring an end.

Yet, their seeds are already scattering,

even as the blooms deaden and brown.

Till next year, they say. There's more to come.