Marking Time
Winter carried on so long I forgot
the great effulgence would come soon enough,
winter deliquescing on the hill
behind the plumbing supply and the AA hall
in a conjunction of blooming, a paroxysm
of bird's foot violets and bluets,
April beaten out on the anvil of February,
the hills fervid with crocus
and tulip that would flower and wither
in the warming days when I would
once more occupy a world of
field mouse scurry, of rabbits at the grasses,
of hummers’ chitter and squeak,
live again in a shimmer of warmth.
Wendy Taylor Carlisle is the author of four books and five chapbooks. Read more.