Eclipsed By Winter

Around the country folks are talking about Spring.  Here in Upstate New York, along the southern shores of Lake Ontario we are just thinking about it.  The days are longer.  The sun is beginning to shine more.  The temperatures are beginning to creep into the upper 30's and lower 40's.  Ah....T-shirts and flip flops!  Ok.  Maybe not.  But this is the time of year when Spring begins to tease us, yet one warm day is suddenly eclipsed by winter and more snow.  

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this year, unlike last when Spring lasted through mid August, we have s short Spring and long, hot Summer! 

delicate violence 

winter's siege 

on spring's debut, 

life's renewal delayed 

days 

weeks 

lifetimes.

like lovers in transition 

a delicate violence 

between one season 

in need, 

and another 

yielding to 

winter's siege. 

Poem © 2006 by R. Burnett Baker 

Poem from chapbook "delicate violence", by R. Burnett Baker, 2006.