NEW BEGINNINGS
Unpruned, forsythia explodes
Golden shafts in tangled glory
Glistening with April’s raindrops.
They catch our eye and then we see
A pink profusion, a panoply
Of petals bedecking cherry trees.
Daffodils also have suddenly sprung
Up. Their white and yellow trumpets
Herald the tulips soon to come.
Hyacinths too are blossoming blue
And in the woods hepaticas strew
Vines of pale lilac ground cover.
Spring is busting out all over.
STRAWBERRY BEGONIA
It has such an alien look
My curly-edged-velvet-leaved plant
That hangs on a window hook.
Overnight it has shot up wands
Where perch tiny white dragonflies
Long-tailed, short-winged, each
With a round yellow body. Meanwhile
Under the pot hang long delicate
Red threads bearing widely spaced
Baby versions of the mother leaves.
The flowers are greeting the spring
Equinox or enacting a resurrection
Or else they are beckoning bees.
I call it my mystery plant.
ON THE CUSP OF SPRING
It’s snowing again and yet
The yellow crocus has bloomed
On the lawn, the finches are back
To their nest in the blue spruce.
Flocks of robins have landed
Each to claim his purlieu
His own particular tract
In which to cock his head
And listen for worms. The bands
Of redwings have returned
To the pond. We hear their chirr.
A bevy of female mallards
Was seen on the tidal river
Along with a Canada gang
Of geese heading north. The cardinal
“Cheer cheer”s his mating call.
And yet it is snowing again.