The Water Lily

We bought a water lily for our fish pond on Sunday.  It had two buds and today to my surprise it flowered.  Oh how I love water lilies.  Don't you?  There is something so magical about them. I keep expecting to see a fairy or two or a talking green frog sitting on a leaf, taking in the warm rays of the sun.

It has shut it's petals for the day and is sleeping soundly until the sun rises again tomorrow.

The Water Lily

A lovely young wife

In her dreaming discerns

A lily-decked pool

With a border of ferns,

And a beautiful child,

With butterfly wings,

Trips down to the edge of the water and sings:

‘Come, mamma! come!

‘Quick! follow me—

‘Step out on the leaves of the water-lily!’

And the lonely young wife,

Her heart beating wild,

Cries, ‘Wait till I come,

‘Till I reach you, my child!’

But the beautiful child

With butterfly wings

Steps out on the leaves of the lily and sings:

‘Come, mamma! come!

‘Quick! follow me!

‘And step on the leaves of the water-lily!

And the wife in her dreaming

Steps out on the stream,

But the lily leaves sink

And she wakes from her dream.

Ah, the waking is sad,

For the tears that it brings,

And she knows ’tis her dead baby’s spirit that sings:

‘Come, mamma! come!

‘Quick! follow me!

‘Step out on the leaves of the water-lily!’

 

Henry Lawson