Botany's Truth

Botany's Truth
By Laura Adkins -- October 16, 2002

If all the passion-seeking men
were blind to soft rosepetal skin,
or sightless to a stunning face;
no beauty could the flawed disgrace.
Such homely girls, with lovely minds
in life all affectation finds
as pretty girls, with pretty eyes
inveigle men with lust disguised.
No man seems taken by the brain
or by the countenances plain
but rather wants a comely prize
to on his arm his worth apprise.
What prize, an annual flower
whose beauty withers on the bower?
'Tis perennial blooms who last
when others' colors have long passed.
These plainest stalks with no allure
will coldest winter's length endure
and through the thawing soil sprout
to further bloom for years, devout.
Why choose a blossom fully spread
when tight-wrapped buds with secrets pled?
To avoid love's monotony,
Trust not beauty, but botany.