Tamara Madison: "The Way Sunshine Smells"

Ten daffodils stand in a pasta sauce jar

giving up their moment of prime

to brighten this cluttered kitchen table.

Yellow lovelies, I am honored

to have you here. Outside you’d be

just another bit of the great flowering world,

but in my kitchen, among the papers,

the bottles, the bananas growing tired

in the bowl, you are amazement itself.

Outside amid the orange blossoms,

the roses, the sweet allysum,

your light scent would be lost.

Here, you turn this morning kitchen

Into a festival of fragrance—you

are the way sunshine smells.

"The Way Sunshine Smells" by Tamara Madison. Published online by Your Daily Poem. © Tamara Madison.  

Photography credit: "Daffodils in a mason jar," likely by Bill Bell (originally color).