Amaryllis Interrupted

That "lady wearing nothing
but a smile and towel"
is the splendid charmer
who abbreviated
my bachelorhood,
who trained my patience,
and delivered me from
this floral flirtation.
For buds and blooms
I'm a hopeless romantic,
for each fiery fuse
parting earth and mulch,
each soiled soul
graduating dormancy
and darkness
sunrise and springtime
awaken my imagination.
Day after day I chronicle
your transformation
from possibility
to celebration
from gift gifted by
my bride’s cousin’s bride
to midsummer forerunner.
That first hint of green,
a neon green fingertip,
parts the Spanish moss,
reaches clear by day’s end.
Each morning taller,
the green lipstick cylinder
twisting up, twisting out,
white, waxy red, carmine,
swells slowly, steadily
into a flamboyant,
mesmerizing claim.