I Guess It's Spring
Relentlessly ephemeral
It's spring, I guess.
Green shoots poking up by my mailbox,
Every day a smidge taller.
They won't change their mind and start shrinking,
I think.
Spring is irreversible.
First the stalks grow,
Then daffodils will come.
For a week or so, on my way to the car
I'll pause to admire their golden glory,
Capture pictures to post on my page,
Muse about wandering lonely as a cloud.
Then I'll be rushing out the door
Late
And the blooms will smudge my peripheral vision
Like a stick of butter across a pan
On which I'm hoping the cookies won't burn
Again.
And then, one day,
I'll notice a rusty stain on a few blooms.
Yellow heads will begin to wrinkle,
Petals will crinkle and wad like paper,
Stems will curl and bow,
Retreating to the earth,
Defeated by the inevitability of summer.
For a week or so, I'll begrudge their grave,
Brooding on the staying power of gold,
As green leaves unfurl from branches,
A smidge bigger
Day by day.
*****
Thank you for engaging. This poem references two famous works, which I encourage you to enjoy with these links to the Poetry Foundation:
"I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud" by William Wordsworth
"Nothing Gold Can Stay" by Robert Frost
About the Creator
Sonia Heidi Unruh
I love: my husband and children; all who claim me as family or friend; the first bite of chocolate; the last blue before sunset; solving puzzles; stroking cats; finding myself by writing; losing myself in reading; the Creator who is love.
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Comments (14)
Congrats on top story!! I loved your references to the two mentioned poems 💕🌸 Spring is in full swing in our area, flowers everywhere 🥰
Congratulations for top story "Your dedication to your craft is inspiring. Each piece you create is a masterpiece in its own right."
This is brilliant. So very descriptive! I loved your comparisons. Well done!
Congrats on Top Story
It is a melancholy meditation on the circle of life that masterfully captures the bittersweet spirit of the changing seasons, reminding us of the transient nature of time and the certainty of change.
Congrats on Top Story!🥳🥳🥳
I loved this. Spring brings such hipe and daffodils with their sunniness especially. And then the die back is sad because they look so pitiful and less proud somehow. Wonderfully evoked. I know the Wordsworth poem but not the Robert Frost so I'm off to seek it out courtesy of your link. Thank you!
Aw, love this Sonia. There is a bit of sadness in there. I am not the biggest fan of Wordsworth's poem...I even did my own take on it recently on Vocal...but this piece is fab. Stunning work and really sets the mood for everything hopeful and great about Spring. Well done on Top Story!
yay for spring!
Oh no, now you have run through the Spring flowers and they died in summer's heat - you spelled it all out so clearly, now we all see them and then don't. Super poem! "a stick of butter..."😍
This is delightful. Well done.
The seasons march on and whatnot
Wonderful
Spring always feels so vague and shifty. Thanks for celebrating that, Sonia, in this beautiful poem - and reminding me to revisit Wordsworth!