Why are birds the loudest in winter?
Through the dead park, mothers walk with their small followers.
Was it time or was it space collapsing to crush your materializing?
A seed falls into the ground and dies.
In the dark you were growing.
Then you stopped.
Why are birds the loudest in winter?
They have only crumbs to celebrate, or the rare insect.
Yet in the black cold they exult.
I wear thicker tights blacker than the cold
and red lips raped by the wind, bleeding slightly.
If a seedling dies, did I forget to water? Or could the soil not sustain you?
Spring explodes carelessly, bursting through the door
and laughing into a chill sudden silence.
Flocks of birds sweep in early, assuming Winter has died.
But he was only asleep.
Was it space or was it time crushed your materializing?
If a seedling dies, did I forget to water? Or could the soil not sustain you?
The birds return and the trees exude yellow-green
and the embryonic flower leaves its yolk-sac &
presses up into the black soil.
And then you stopped.
Winter woke & coughed a great deal of ice about the edge of the field,
as you stopped.
Did I forget to water? Or could the soil not sustain you?
In February the crocus ignores snow and shines
from the black earth. In February we cut hearts out of paper
to celebrate love, bravery in the face of the cold.
In April, we experience an unexpected winter.
Even the birds pause.
Contact the author:
nancymizej@me.com