Home Planet News

a journal of literature & art

Roger Hecht

Dazed

after WCW

 
Dazed spring approaches, the sluggard,
dragging out in excruciating steps a programmed
dance all but random to the eye: the winter aconite
blossoms, then the crocus, the daffodil, the cherry,
delicate at the tips of their branches, blossom,
 
but the trees that huff & puff in windstorms
can barely squeeze out a leaf. As hard as it tries
to dress itself, Nature’s more naked than ever.
The birds go mad. Red wing blackbirds
scream themselves hoarse. Get it done! Get it done!
 
Still, that thrill to see a color unexpectedly pop
from the gray leaf litter. Soon enough
the woods will be an unreadable green mass.
Then it’s summer and the game’s up,
exhausted from the heat & anxiety
 
that soon it all will be over. Then the cold weight
of the clouds. The weight of the wait all over again.
 
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