Illinois Verse/At the Mum Show

by Anna Shattuck Palmer

At the Mum Show

Bewildering flower!
 In your gorgeous tatters,
 A splendid mendicant,
Boldly begging admiration for your beauty.

Amazing blossom!
 Sinking sometimes to a tiny
 Button of delicate tint;
Often swelling into a great balloon of color
Held to earth by its long green stem.
 Sumptuous! Regal!

Under the long stretches of protecting glass
The evanescent life of vivid tones and varying shades
Merges, as some great crashing chord,
Into an ensemble of magnificent harmony.