I love to watch a magnolia tree
Dancing with the wind,
Applauding her partner while they dance.
Hardly a word or sigh passes between them.
The wind leads and the magnolia boughs follow
In an undulating pas-de-deux.
When the dance has ended,
They part without regret,
Certain that they will dance again
And again until death does them part.
Then the widowed wind
Will other partners find
To begin the dance anew,
Different, neither better nor worse.
If I have returned to dust by then,
I trust that someone else
Will watch with equal rapture that timeless dance
In which only one partner can be seen,
Moved as he is by the other.
