Gilding the Lily

Gilding the Lily

They shake at me,
Everything else fades,
The play between the surface and the eye
Is my adventure;
Their movements make me sway,
My gaze joins them, skimming in the water,
The shimmer never ceases,
I shake at lily colour.

It's just light and my biology;
Eye, air, light, lily,
Combine into impression.
The brush flicks in its pool,
The relay must be swift;
Know the colour,
Make the stroke,
The moment dies as the paint dries.

Now the light hits the canvas in the gallery
And quivers in your eye.
Now it's your biology,
On my still ecstatic pond.
Stand up close, as I did,
And reverse the journey
And if something seems to shake
The lily's yours, my light has come and gone.