Northern Spring
A poem
A poem
Marran grass slackens back to the melt-water streams
as the last blizzard softens into sleet.
Ice crust ruptures with the echoes of metal
and precocious poppies bend in the breeze.
Glinting glancing rays strike cleaved faces
to splinter and fragment on mossy scree,
while beneath stripped oaks, fungal helmets dare to peek
from brittle soil and gnarled roots.
A furtive sun, unsure of itself, checks the day
before committing to a watery show between ghostly pillows.
In a hesitant debut, green plovers whine a plaintiff plea
to the virgin growth across the awakening valley.