nostalgia is picky (napowrimo 2021: day 16)

there you were –
still casted in amber,
sunlight still sprawling over you
like hibiscuses in the summer,
and for that i must apologize.

i was not truthful -
i took to the past with rose-tinted
glasses and have forgotten about
the periods of dormancy,
and the periods of growth –

well not that,
i've forgotten per se,
but rather i could not
bare to live them again.

you were always a sunflower,
so i've painted the past
as the summer of sixteen,
at the disservice of you –

equal parts beautiful and brooding,
you’re meant to be
admired in full.

Prompt:
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/article/conservation-cant-just-be-a-popularity-contest by star in the napowrimo thread