Spring Equinox 2013 - a reading (on YouTube)
In the springtide of the year as the trees are raining leaves, the oaks are crowned with a tonsure of amber, the pines with a halo of gold. With every gust of spring, clouds of pollen billow like swarms of wasp-colored midges rising to search the land for prey.
In the springtide of the year as the trees are raining leaves, the oaks are crowned with a tonsure of amber, the pines with a halo of gold. With every gust of spring, clouds of pollen billow like swarms of wasp-colored midges rising to search the land for prey.
With each stir of wind, dried oak leaves flutter to the
ground, sparkling and scattering like glitter suspended in the morning breeze. Flurries
of oak flowers descend, forming drifts across the cobblestones like ropes of
dirty snow. They swirl in the spring air before settling in brown drifts with a
dusting of gold that accumulates on the walk and lawn. Men pile leaves so rich
with pollen they smoke sulphurously as though their rakes were pitchforks
wielded by a host of minor demons.
Each night, the whippoorwills
melt a little farther from the window. Feet fade to miles until nothing is
heard of their once powerful cries. We are tempted to mourn their loss, yet change
is as inevitable as butterflies emerging from their silky winter life jackets
to float away in spring.
© 2013 Edward P. Morgan III
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ReplyDeleteNotes and asides:
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As odd as it is to most Northerners, live oaks in Florida shed their leaves in early spring just before they flower and leaf out again. More than once, I’ve watch the lawn service blow the leaves from the driveway into a pile that smokes and steams like compost in the cold.
We begin to hear the whippoorwills in late February. By May, the recede deeper into the park until they cease their distinctive mating cries.
And happy 19th Anniversary to my wife and Imaginings partner, Karen Morgan. I hope she knows that I’ll never undervalue all her hard work (even if her current political financiers do).
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ReplyDeletePicture Notes:
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The butterflies emerging from the cocoons, the silk jackets, struck me. So I found a picture of a butterfly cocoon on-line and used that for this sketch. Drawn on the iPad. I like the shape of the cocoon and the transparency, the butterfly almost visible within.