Look down,
Toward the forest floor,
Not up,
Toward the skies,
At the golden stars dotted across
Nature’s forest universe.
Buttercups as far as the eye can see,
Mirroring dawn’s cloudless luminescence,
Lovely in the vastness of the green and brown wilderness,
Tiny twinkling dots of wonder from a distance.
Three insects orbit a flower,
Impermanent,
But still I want to name these new friends,
Perhaps after the Greek heroes –
Achilles, Perseus, Heracles,
Or the Muses –
Clio, Erato, Thalia.
But no,
Already they have flown off,
To other galaxies of spring blooms,
To other celestial forest meadows.
And I am alone again,
Gazing into the boundless heavens,
Feeling small,
Smaller even
Than a buttercup.