Chaos & old age

The lily's yellowing leaves are among the first signs of its descent into chaos.
More pollen stains its petals, the first few of which have fallen.
A few large buds remain, perhaps never to open.

Earlier stages shown on April 23, 25, and 26.

Chantler63 Shakespeare Challenge and National Poetry Writing Month
Plays & their themes
Day 28: King Lear (chaos & old age)

Chaos & old age sounds like the state of a late-blooming scribbler pressing onward to send her perfumed words into the ether before her petals fall and her leaves fail.
I'M TRYING NOT TO BE DISTRACTED BY YOUR CLEVER, LOVELY BLIPS!
Thank you from the bottom of my heart for not ignoring me as I am ignoring you. I'd much rather be looking at and writing comments on your amazing photos, but there's this novel that's gotta get finished.

Today's topic reminded me of a famous poem by Pierre Ronsard, for which I dashed off this translation. I took a few liberties with the text and gave it my own title. Making it rhyme as the original does would have been beyond me, at least in so short a time, so I settled for blank verse. If it's good enough for Shakespeare, it's good enough for me.

CARPE DIEM

My young love, come, let us observe the rose
Which on this very morning had revealed
Its crimson petals to the rising sun.
Has it yet lost its lustre, so like yours,
Its shapeliness, here at the close of day?
Alas, love. Notice how its beauty flees,
Its color fades, its petals rust and droop.
How cruel nature is, in that a flower
Like this endures only an hour or two.
Believe me if you will, my bonny lass:
While your young glory flourishes and blooms
In its pure newness, fresh as any bud,
Treasure your youth and hold it as you may.
As with this flower, old age will come too fast
And tarnish in you what so gleams today.