Gone by Midmorning

The largess of nature provides for squash flowers to bloom as their vine drapes comfortably down the basement stairs. Stark, aging, manmade materials provide a beautiful contrast behind the lush green and vibrant orangy-yellow of this fleeting blossom.

I saw the bloom when I opened the curtains, and went racing out to capture it in the light of the rising sun. Good thing, too, because by midmorning, the edges of the bloom were crumpling, and by the end of the day, it was a closed, withered dead end.

The next day, however, the immature blossom below this had filled out, waiting for bug, bee, or breeze to trade its pollen with another.