Talisman of love and herb of goddess Venus of love

That blooms in September and is called Michaelmas Daisy

Blooming in all pastel shades of the resplendent rainbow

In the wilds like chameleon stars iridescent on earthly trail

Formed from the tears of the Goddess Asterea who wept

At the absence of stars on the earthly terrain

Or as purple blossoms from the drops of Aegeus’ blood

Born when sisters fleeing marauders were metamorphosed

By the Herbwoman into the lavender fringed aster and yellow goldrod

Or when the dryad Bellide was transformed into the aster

To escape the amorous advances of Vertumnus

It is the day’s eye furling its petals up at nightfall

Blooming on earth where Virgo scattered stardust

It bring an aura of daintiness and elegance

It is the starwort with medicinal elixir in its flimsy veins

Its odour when its leaves were burnt scared away the serpents

Laid on the graves of French soldiers they were a whispered afterthought

Wishing that things had turned out differently

The flower emblem of France they symbolise fidelity, love, faith, wisdom, hope

Flowers of the twentieth anniversary of nuptials

Asters are the blooming stars in meads that brighten the day

Of the moth and butterfly that kiss it with stings to devour nectar

And the sunrays that make it open its petals after an ebon night

Also of the lovers that witness its beauty and piety with elegance

In the meadows and wildsand on altars of reverence…