Botanizing
By: Jim Bates
Two brothers
Wandering hills and fields
Breathing the rarefied air
Walking through deep woods
Cool and green
Tromping across warm meadows
Fragrant with wildflowers
They’d stop along the way
Field books handy
Identifying what they observed
Meadow rue and sweet cicely
White daisy and prairie blue stem
They were botanizing
Taking time to step away
To commune with a wilder place
Among the white aster and fragrant bergamot
The purple milkweed and blazing star
They’d walk happily along
Brothers more like friends
United in their love of the natural world
The beauty they saw and shared there
Every time
Kindred spirits in wildness
Shared passion for Nature’s gifts
Soul mates in the awe of wonder.