October Light
Many things
are called lilies
which are not, yet these are,
still lilies
by October light
these graceless stalks
brown shriveled sticks
reaching dead hands
for the gone
summer sky.
Time has burned them
the dry wheat's color,
taken their sundance of petals
scarlet and gold
yellow as morning,
even the memory of
that feasting scent
that
drunked the bees.
Still lilies grow
for October
is the cup earth has made
for midsummer's wine.
Seeds and stem
bulb and root, burnt or bright,
still lilies, alive by October light,
out of sight, and it's best you know
for pulling hands
always
kill what they sow.
October 2021
posted for Sherry Blue Sky's
Collateral Beauty at earthweal
Note: While it may look "messy," leaving the ground undisturbed in fall and the dead stalks of lilies and other flowering plants in the garden during winter is important in providing habitat for beneficial insects and certain pollinators like miner bees,which overwinter in the stems. See Fine Gardening's Provide A Winter Home For Beneficial Insects and Nesting and Overwintering Habitat for Pollinators: "While flowering plants provide pollinators with food, insects also require suitable shelter for nesting and overwintering. Most bees and wasps create small nests beneath the soil or within dead plant stems or cavities in wood."
Photos ©joyannjones, 2021
