The most renowned milliner in Paris
blessed with the world’s most malleable linen
(woven from the slender, pale flax that flowers the Provence fields blue each spring)
and Sinamay bases, biases and bindings
(harvested in Costa Rica from lupis abaca plants)
turning wheels of velvet ribbon
(Japanese silk, cocooned to perfection and saturated in every color in a rainbow)
with endless feathered fringes and sprays

and eternity at her command

could not
begin to conjure up

could not
come within measure of

what the catalpa tree
thoughtlessly discards at my feet.