Because spring masquerades with us
Because friends continue to report
I can’t breathe
Because although my heart drags
Daffodils design to have their way.
Because spring upholds its wretched promise to us
Because friends scrabble to apologize
If I’d only known
Because passing sorrow remembers my shape
Regardless of my shrinking wardrobe.
Fill up the holes, the advice calls.
Plug up all the places the rodents can enter.
From my deck I scan the space around me–
Count the holes like grains of rice.
And the garden and the compost buffets.
Mulch the beds. Feed the bluebirds,
Stain the deck. Hose the siding.
Wash the storms. Fix the wood rot.
The fullback yuccas lean into
My foundation cracks and cackle.
Because spring arrives relentless
Because friends ask artlessly
What are your plans
Because anxiety slinks up in my home
By pdf and homework folder handouts
I give a good look to neon blossoms.
Can’t you keep me
In this sweetness forever?
But I touch and a petal falls;
The dog drags me on.
— day 24, Poetry Month
