Final Flourish May’s final flourish and the lilacs have given up their priestly purple for a crestfallen brown, colors lifted and carried by minstrel winds to beds of irises, allium and meadow sage. With summer’s cruel advance, I imagine the hoarding of their fatigued fragrance in the tangled thrust of roots, abiding a cooler darkness until the earth first warms, breaks apart the frost, and calls upon the miracle of creation so they can once again extend their lazy heave …