Poetry month is almost here!

Slice of Life # 26 - March 26, 2011

I'm on spring break, poetry month is coming, and we might have a little snow. I’m wondering if even during spring break I’ll be able to do some gardening. It’s been a strange winter, hardly any moisture at all, and now, in the first weeks of spring, winter returns. I tell my students to write about the little things, and sometimes the big things, but about themselves personally. So here is a little thing really, considering the lives of so many in peril, but still…

Regret

I’ve already washed the shorts,

retrieved the summer shirts,

and now I must burrow back

to the farthest parts of the closet

where sweaters reside—

previously so satisfyingly warm,

now scratchy and heavy.

I reach high to pull out the boots

from the top shelf,

find the wool socks,

and go to shovel the sidewalk.

Spring promises such freedom;

no more minutes spent with layers.

I don’t have to warm the car.

I can touch the grass with my toes.

Is Spring always just around the corner?

Why won’t Winter go

and make a hasty exit

instead of lingering until

each snowflake has its dance?