A Flowering Timeline

While walking hastily back to my dorm, I noticed for the first time that there were flowerbeds positioned beside the sidewalk. They weren't the easiest to see with the tilted pine trees bending towards the road, grabbing more of my attention. I should have noticed the flowers sooner, since their golden color was the brightest along the sidewalk.

The flowers were painted gold with petals falling slightly down and then swooping back up. The ends looked like they were cut or nicked to make three jagged points. The reason for the detail escaped me.
The bulb of the blossom was dominant, taking up most of the bloomed top. It was also a bright golden yellow, which when hit perfectly by the sun seemed to glow. The stem connected underneath and faded from green to a brownish grey, but from it thriving pointed leaves sprouted.
Among the matured blossom were was also one browning, with petals missing and its stem becoming stiff and weak. The last of the golden fingers surrounding the browned bulb were shriveled.

Yet among the fully-grown and the crumbling blossoms a bud was just beginning to unfold.
There I saw the birth, the matured, and the death; the life of the flowerbed.

Images taken by Mizuni on the campus of Eastern University. Graphics by Mizuni.