The Benevolent Gardener

A rose petal spirals from high
Red parachute aflame
Weaving slowly through the sky
Softly calling out my name

And as she tumbles past
She just happens to catch my eye
And by fortune I turn my head
Just as she passes me right by

And in a moment I’m transfixed
By this petals softly lilting flight
As the dew gathered upon her brow
Glimmers in the morning light

She’s bobbing through the turbulence
Of the winds never-ceasing sigh
As if glued to a spider’s web
From which she will never be untied

Like a ballerina she pivots
In a spinning pirouette of grace
Her crimson dress billowing
As she gently floats through empty space

Curled and then unfurled
Like the wings of some mighty beast
The petal slowly meanders
Side to side, west to east

And I can almost hear the crash
As she makes contact with the floor
Her dreaming dance is over
This rose will fly no more

But what a moment I’ve just witnessed
As nature carefully takes a breath
Sending this lonely little petal
Spinning softly to her death

And the beauty is that this petal
Would have drifted down from up high
Regardless of whether I was here or not
It was just my luck that I happened to pass by

For I am an inconsequential human dot
In this myriad, pulsing world
Filled with slowly tumbling petals
Gently drifting as they’re unfurled

And whoever sent that rose tumbling down
Planted the same bush from which it came
And I know that this benevolent gardener
Long ago planted me just the same

And what a privilege to be a part of her garden
Filled with its collection of roses and thorns
Around which I’ve carefully manoeuvred
From the day that I was born

And much like how a flower blooms and blossoms
Before being sent to spiral through the sky
I know I’ll be the same
And I long gave up questioning why

Because I’ve learnt to just accept
That I am the same as that rose
I merely inhabit nature’s garden
And she controls where I go

And after receiving today’s gift
I wish to thank my earthen queen
For providing me with her garden
In which she lets me weave my dreams

So I stoop down and pick up her petal
That lies curled upon the floor
And I fling it into the sky
So that she can dance once more.