Preparations
That day
when spring is come
and birds blow song
when wind is blue
and sun stirs up
thrashing about ‘til cold be gone
and buds peek forward
from the womb of the tree
raising their heads like flowers to the air
while black flies buzz black with
the quick lust of the bee
and butterflies
flair
with their certain, butterfly flair
and ants spin hotly
out their cave doors in the ground
searching new food
and dragonflies wake soft,
wee in the silence of the morn
beyond the winter-death of sound
that day, I’ll prance to you
in the early light
and we’ll make our bed
until it is night.
In the middle of summer’s heat wave, a reminder of spring. I wrote this little poem 45 years ago. It was the first item in my 1990 booklet, Darkness and Other Poems. This version has a few slight edits.
