I once counted how long it takes the flowers
of the Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow plant to turn.
The blossoms appear as a deep violet colour,
fade to lavender on the second day,
before paling further to white, and finally
turning a light yellow colour on the third day.
I watched as each day the flowers
grew fainter but became brighter,
faded and got fairer.
A bit like the ink on an old postcard
as the memory smudges and stirs.
Nesting and beautiful,
each day with a little more fragrance.
Carla Chait has a master’s degree in English Literature and was awarded the 2012 Deon Hofmeyr Prize for Creative Writing at the University of the Witwatersrand. She has had poetry and short fiction published in local literary journals and online. In 2022, she published a novel, Floor 1.