Zones

Fall 2013

I look for her
my eyes reaching
for the crocuses still locked away
a spec of green foliage
curled on the forest floor
challenged to unravel winter’s sleep

Red wings
dart and dash
a beauty stunted
by the name blackbird
these aviators perch
on precarious feather plums
around the ponds perimeter
their shrill burr resounding

In the upturn of bird’s
bantering for power
Spring escapes
when an errant gull tries
to join a flock of geese,
legs kick away the underbrush and
deer dance like Rockettes across the trail
almost indistinguishable transition:
shell of flower faded, hard,
fills with green bud and thorn

So much we do not see
or know
the seasons like zones
Frost’s rough zones whose
laws must be obeyed
but never fully understood

An unpredictably predictable rebirth
a baton’s downbeat, a remembered song
liquid gold melody

Written in Fall 2013 | Published July 31, 2014