The Rare Plant.
What rare plant is this
That decorates
the cement pot
In my garden?
Do I assume
It is the pup-rika plant?
Or may be
the canine cactus?
I did not plant it there
Neither sowed
nor watered.
Never pulled out the weeds
Or watered it when dry.
Today it has reared its head
From that sandy bed
And looks soulfully at me.
I am filled with puppy love,
Somehow.
For every dog has his day
…………………………..Gulsum Basheer
Spotless goodness,
Petals like molten gold,
Curled and twirled
Waiting to open
To a eager new morn.
Soft velvety ,
Making me giddy
Before her beauty.
I breathe deeply
Searching for words
To sing in rapture.
I call to the muses
To fill my verses.
And demand the artists
To tell me,
What yellow is this
Like a glow
Borrowed from the sun?
Oh Creator!
Who gives each his own,
In appropriate dose
Can you disclose
What made this yellow rose
Prettier than most.
——————Gulsum Basheer
Flowers dipped in ink
Without stamen or pollen
In yellow and green.
No circle of relief
In the flower.
I am staring
With out a blink.
So shocked, I cannot think.
Who did them
Completely blue?
I have no clue.
Nature created flowers
In red, white or pink
Sometimes a yellow, orange and purple
Or majestic magenta.
Man has interfered
Played around with the actual.
The experiment was
slow and gradual.
What came was this.
A blue hybrid flower!!
The original was so brazen.
Lovely beyond reason.
This in blue,
Is not marigold.
Let us call it
Mari-blue instead.
––Gulsum Basheer
The Rusty Ladder And The Lovely Plants
The hibiscus complained
to the coleus,
“Why is there a ladder next to us?
So hazardous.”
The unpretentious coleus
not usually loquacious
mumbled
“Very disadvantageous
for our look.”
“Indeed incongruous .”
agreed the flower.
The mischievous ladder
eavesdropping on their talk
said,
“I add character to you both.
Once you were just plants
in a pot.
Now you are part of a scenario glamorous.”
Gulsum Basheer
Pirouetting around the calyx
the crunched jagged petals,
twirled and twisted
into themselves,
till they whorled one on one
without segregation.
How many are we?
They wondered
Unable to separate
And count themselves .
They flowed into each other
in cyclic embrace,
Till they were not
separate petals,
But one whole flower.
Distinct from other hibiscus
they prided themselves
as complete flowers.
Gulsum Basheer
GULSUM WRITES 