Suitors at the Gate

A  tiny, paper thin, yellow blossom shrivels. The bloom sheds. A small green nubbin is revealed.

Taking its own sweet time it expands. Humid Iowa summer mornings bath the newcomer in dew. Blistering noon day sun soaks deep into the green flesh. Night time comes, and the green gift rests on the vine until the next sultry day. 

Patient, it is in no hurry to show its true color until the days grow heavy with the haze of a long, hot summer. All the lime green orb has absorbed starts to radiate from within. A glow, faint pinkish-orange begins to blush. 

Then the red lady appears. And she is ready to greet her suitors. For she will have many come to the garden gate. But only the one… patient, caring, trustworthy, will call this prize his.