Beads the right size and colour

If you follow the trail of yellow seeds

fixed by her nimble fingers

in the dark velvet earth

you will surface in

the sun-swollen prairie

where buttercups blink open

coneflowers nod their heads

and dandelions ignore you completely

If you follow the trail of blue seeds

pushed into the nap of loam

by her callused fingertips

bold crocus will raise their furry heads in the raw air

bluestem will feather in front of you

and slough grass will inflict paper cuts if you yank them

And if you bend to examine a buttercup

your eye will follow the rim of its inner eye

convex and pollen-swollen

then, you will finally understand

why she searched countless beads

for the right size and colour