An odd thing that delights this barren desert
with a splash of Nature’s colorful paint brush.
Where snow would normally grace a frozen ground.
lies a bed of colorful tulips, in the desert wasteland, a
miracle to be found.

How did the north get to the south in my outdoor
flower bed?  A bed where many a cactus grew,
But tulips?  What other wonders I never knew.

Looking for flowers to grace my yard, foolishly
picked up tulip bulbs.  I was shopping very fast
and never even asked if they would last.
 
People said, no this can never be, a tulip on unfertile soil.
But all it took was a lot of faith and even more unbridled toil.

After a few weeks, to my surprise, different colored tulips,
Their beauty a wonder to behold.   The tulips danced
not in the snow, who was to know in the desert they’d grow!

But God’s creation didn’t last long, for tulips in the desert
just don’t belong.   They could only live for about a week when the short
desert winter came.  Tulips in the desert?   No, they
didn’t live for very long, but I will always remember,
their short lived desert song.

                              Mary E. Lacey
                                     2013