"Emphemeral" is one of my favorite words. Never is this word more in evidence than May in the Minnesota woods. Delicate splashes of wildflowers dot my walk: bloodroot, wood anemone, trillium. Vernal pools hum with frog song. Toads trill from the marsh. All these sights, smells and sounds will eventually submerge into the heat of summer, but for now I delight in them. They remind me of Anne Waldman's poem "Things That Go Away And Come Back Again", which you can read here.
The most ephemeral being of all may be the Mayfly--Latin name Ephemeroptera--whose entire life is played out in a single spring day.
WOOD ANEMONE
YELLOW BELLWORT
JACK-IN-THE-PULPIT
MAYFLY
(U.S. Fish & Wildlife photo)