Exotic?

TODAY'S FLOWERS

http://flowersfromtoday.blogspot.com

EXOTIC?

To those of you in milder climes

These flowers are not exotic,

And labelling them as something rare

Is really idiotic.

But where I live in New South Wales, 

Down beside the sea,

Pretty little Springtime flowers

We very rarely see.

We have our jacaranda

And our wattle's golden bright

And the curtains of wisteria 

Are a truly lovely sight.

But cowslips, bluebells and the like

Are something rich and rare

And so we travel to the Highlands*

To see them growing there.

*

* The Highlands of New South Wales!

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DISTANT MEMORY

Memory is not a picture; it's a series of disconnected blots.

Only sometimes do we wander in a field of forget-me-nots.

We remember this one and that one, on one day or the next.

We remember in isolation, not as smoothly-flowing text.

Most of all we remember emotion; we look at a photograph,

And we remember sadness, though the image may show a laugh.

And, as the years go past us, we remember self-delusion;

We recall how our own gaiety was sometimes an illusion.

A love-affair indulged in, we recall with some distaste;

We thought it was 'the real thing' then, now 'the true thing' must be faced;

We 'fell in love' merely because a new man had been found.

Looking back, he was nothing much; just the only man around.

Friends, relations, colleagues have grown dust upon the shelf.

Whom do I really remember?

Myself.

*