Fleeting beauty of a white flower

無常的花
A white lovely flower I like to smell,
the scent tantalizingly alluring,
sitting bright, young and fresh,
on the stem of a sturdy old plant,
I gleefully plucked it off from its safe dwelling,
to bring it back home
hoping its freshness and smell will stay on,
as picture of its perpetual scent and attractiveness,
being naively painted in my head…

But it quickly withered and died a day after,
transforming into a darkened lump of dried and crumbled petals,
demonstrating quietly, yet unwillingly,
of the swiftness with which it changes its physical beauty.

I despaired a little,
over this somewhat glaring facts,
that impermanence and fragility,
have reared its little ugly heads,
but all with noble intention,
urging us to learn to live in the moments,
to treasure, to appreciate
to learn to love with our hearts
and to give while we can
before all that is worthwhile and good
perish into a cottony cloud of nothingness…