THE WAITING SEASON

Grimed filament snow
leaching into the callous crust of earth.
Pinched echoes of February.
Early caressing breezes
teases,
sneezes and hiccups
of springtime.

Fashionable dewdrops.
Indifferent flakes
defused into slush.
- then, rain.
- then the wind.

Stirring refuse in brittle dead branches,
godless briar buds.
Naïve, perennial strike of hope beats,
the descendant in every man,
impulsively,
…stretching
the waiting season.