PAST THEIR BEST...

...or still beautiful?  You can choose but I love tulips when they get to this stage and whereas pre-Blip I would have consigned them to the composts heap once they started to “go over”, now I leave them and enjoy their beauty as they fade.  This triptych shows my fading tulips, and is SOOC with no titivating whatsoever.

Whilst looking at this triptych, this poem came to me:

TAKE A SECOND GLANCE

Is beauty only there 
     when fresh and new - 
or is it still evident 
     when that same beauty fades?
Are we worthy only 
     of being admired
          when we are young and beautiful
or is there a beauty 
     that comes with age?
Eventually, we all lose 
     our youthful comeliness
          but does that mean 
we can no longer be admired - 
     or do those looking 
          see a different kind of beauty - 
               one that comes from within?
The choice is ours - 
     to look and see 
          beneath the outward appearance
or to judge  those who appear 
     to have physical imperfections 
          considering them not worthy
               of even a second glance.
What glorious inner beauty we miss
     when we fail to take this 
          second glance.

© Maureen Iles 26/1/22