This Operetta

This morning's operetta boasts
all the elements of a lavish
stage setting, the lush foliage
of my garden, with its brash
bursts of colour, the softly
plush texture of leaf and petal
against the ocean of blue
with sheepishly grazing
clouds nibbling the sky
to feed the puffy-white and
transform it in shades and
plenitude bringing drama to the
garden serenity as a butterfly
settles drowsily on a golden
sunflower and the sun
obligingly, until lightning
strikes the sky, coddles blooms
to follow its western passage,
while a blazing-red cardinal
peals its sublime oral paean
to nature's divine perfection.