Ode to the dandelion

Why don’t we venerate

Dandelion flowers?

Smiling in colour

Humble, golden simpletons –

Insisting they love you,
not:

Multiplying infestations

Dog-eared yellow; viral

On a pristine lawn.

For what if the fluff

of dandelion flowers,
The seed heads that drift

(soft fairies; spindly spirits)

Were blessings of joy:

Those downy, white spheres

That glance past your nose,

Quivering in your delight

As you set them all free
Dispersing in the wind

Like the spirits of butterflies.

They pirouette in the upstream

Scattering every which way,
Flitting to the heavens

With all your good intentions.