Apr/May 2020 Poetry Special Feature |
Multimedia painting by Janet Bothne
I Wasn't Prepared for an Early Spring
I wasn't expecting the dogwood
to welcome me in her snow white wrapof light, or for a black-eyed
Susan with her slender buildto climb the fence so eagerly, leaning
over into the arms of anotherclimber, the clematis jackmanii
—a sun lover who emergedfrom the soil earlier this year.
I didn't expect for these fireworksof blooms, my Mexican sage
throwing out long trajectoriesof lavender velvet. How my fingers
hungered to trace them, the waythey love to map the soft slopes
of your powdered cheeks.I wasn't expecting to be loved.
Your sudden change surprised me,but why shouldn't happiness come
without an invitation, like orange bloomsof butterfly weed rising unexpectedly
from the ground, their seeds blown infrom god knows where? After all,
who gave the wisteria permissionto unloose her long tresses
of perfumed hair?