Fuji Cherry Poem by Roy Ballard

A dowdy, dwarfish shrub most of the year,
slow-growing lichen leprous on each bough,
it flaunts a thousand buds when April's here
and joyfully proclaims ‘Come, see me now'.
Before the ranks of summer march this way
with colours flying, silk on painted silk,
it holds the eyes so tight they cannot stray
with petal petticoats as pale as milk.
Excess of beauty surely shortens life;
it has its private purposes and ends;
it's ever dangerous to bring to wife;
it causes jealousy between its friends;
the sooner gone the brighter burns its flame
but when it dies our envy turns to shame.