The very last of the lily stems given me a month ( a month!) ago . . .
This series was taken over the past three or four days . . .
She's beautiful, even in decline . . .
I think of the death of the swan in "Swan Lake". . .
Or an aged woman of whom they say - "You can tell she was a great beauty."
So graceful in decline . . .
Her fragile petals drooping . . .
She grows transparent, a ghost of what she was.