Ode to April:
you arrive with thunder and wind
and then settle yourself
across the land
with pink and white grace.
The mulberry and pear trees
are resplendent in white,
the apple, peach, and crab apple
blushed with pink.
Shy purple violets
and bright dandelion suns
spring open beneath our feet
as bloodroot, trillium, and toothwort
make their way across stony slopes.
Soon mushrooms will lift their heads
and iris will spread her petals.
Daffodils have already started to retire,
but magnolia is dropping by
to share her secrets
and the buds on the lilacs and redbud trees
speak of sweetness to come.
There are turkeys gobbling between the trees
and cardinals nesting in high branches,
cedar waxwings stopping by for a spell
and yellow bellied sapsuckers
investigating promising trees.
April, you dazzle me.
April, you delight me.
April, you bring beauty trailing after you
and leave sunlit possibility in your wake.
