My Flower

You arrived in May
a late Spring flower,
cherished, delicate and ready to blossom.

You were not just some ordinary flower
but a special one,
handpicked by the Master Himself.

But in the weeks that lay ahead
they neglected you,
and your radiance began to fade.

By August you should have been in full bloom,
that's when flowers flourish ...
isn't it?

But instead you lay broken,

and I was broken too.

I still have a precious flower.
It is the same but different from the first
paradoxical as it may seem.

This bloom is equally as precious to me!

Broken flowers take time to heal,
so do the gardeners that tend them.
But both the flower and the gardener have a creator
who is wiser and stronger than they.

One day you will bloom,
you will be whole again and legs that never walked
will run and skip ...
For of such is the Kingdom of Heaven.

Until then, I will tend to you daily
and lovingly watch you grow.
I will appreciate your beauty
and drink in the scent of your smile.

For, you are more than the world to me.

2004