Stage Directions
Spring usually comes in on a yo-yo. The temperature is up; the temperature is down. This spring is no different. I wait for the snow to melt off the flower beds. I am impatient to get a rake and clear away winters debris and expose dark, rich dirt, to see the tips of daffodils, tulips and iris, to watch forsythia buds, now small and brown, grow fuller and fuller until they erupt into bloom. I eagerly await the weigela’s blossoming, filling an otherwise bare canvas in one corner of the garden with a splash of fuchsia. Azalea, dogwood, peonies, lilac–all standing by, waiting for their cue to appear.
a growing warmth
arthritic joints respond
to a robin’s song
Samurai Contest 2019
UHTS, 2nd place
