She Wanted to Know about Mourning in Springtime

She Wanted to Know about Mourning in Springtime

1.
What grief
caused the woodland
creek that runs along
the bottom
of the hollow
to halt
its cheerful
song and offer up
instead this wild
lament?

2.
What secrets
does the spring rain
whisper
to tender
new leaves
to make them
tremble
and turn
earthward?

3.
When I close
my eyes,
the warm fingers
of rain
are my mother's hands
on my face.
How did she
become just
this?

4.
Has a young girl gone
missing
in the woods
again, or
is that dancing lace
azalea
in bloom?

5.
What profit labor
when so light
a froth—
these distant
pale azaleas
seen through trees—
makes counterweight
to loss?