March

March

Inverse

Now March is here the trees stretch out their limbs

To feel the roaring air and warming sun

And riffle through their wardrobes once again

*

The snow has melted and the swollen streams

Are demob happy: freed from crystal bonds

They roar with manic laughter, chuckling sounds

*

Sweet violets and lesser celandines

Compete like catwalk models to impress

And set the season's color with their dress

*

In ponds male frogs cling grimly to their mate

Determined each that he should be the one

Establishing succession to the throne

*

While songbirds trill, the nimbly feeding swift

Flits like a fighter picking off its foe

By air-ace flown in dog-fights long ago ~

Obverse

~ Now March is here the couples in the park

Vow faithfulness and constancy like swans

As cobs monogamously court their pens

*

Young children cast keyboards and screens aside

And burst from heated rooms to run outdoors

Like frantic puppy-dogs or mad March hares

*

Impatient gardeners clean and oil their tools

Their winter hibernation at an end

They venture out to prune braving the wind

*

Accountants study columns and compute

How little tax their clients need to pay

As magpies wait to steal their eggs away

*

Like hawks the farmers monitor their fields

For signs of life, the miracle of birth,

For fresh green shoots arising from the earth