Tulip, Fuchsia

There’s not much to this photograph—
      the head of a tulip in the foreground,
            a blur of colors layered behind.
Still it draws me.
Perhaps it’s the fuchsia of the tulip, so vibrant.
Perhaps it’s that simple shape,
      so rounded on one side,
            surprisingly squarish on the other.
Perhaps it’s the way the distant oranges and pinks and greens
      set off that purplish red.
Perhaps it’s the memory of lying there in that Fort Wayne park,
      flat on my stomach,
            the dew soaking through my shirt,
                  as I enjoyed the warm radiance of the sunlight,
                        striving to see the world through a tulip’s eye.
Yet in truth, to try to explain my response
      is to distance myself from my response,
            and that runs counter to why I photograph.
So let it simply be acknowledged that there’s not much to this image.
But as far as I am concerned, it has everything.
And more.