in Spring sometimes

yellow-beaked red-breasts

eat twice their weight

in seeds and worms on the front yard

stick legs hopping place to place

dandelions tap deep water

and flower sunshine

sticky poplar husks litter surfaces

adhering shoes                                 feet

I wake at four open window

a speaker playing bird concerto

greeting first rivers of dawn

and then the robin takes wing

scarlet patch rising high

into new-leafed branches

and I’m left behind lead-hearted

surgery, sleep, sun and piano tuning

maybe first

on May 1^st

what I remember

lying down on narrow table

hard

white powerful lights still off

deep breaths in mask

then coming to eyes taking in

morphine dosage

sail into sleep

wake again to hie home

more sleep

begin to heal muscle

tissue repairing

pain lessening

each sleep gathering tendrils of body-time

into good natured order of things

along comes summer sun

a long time coming

bask on lounger

be and become whole again

warm to the soul

while inside the careful turner of pegs

plies the century old strings into balance

well-tempered and beautiful

some so close to breaking they must be prayed over

and when it’s done the songs can ring true again

it remembers 

spring wind

it’s a dusty          warm

swaying of spirit

unseen pollen and seeds alight

take root here and there

small birds wings dance

hold their own

old leaves and debris catch

edge of air and fling

bounding ground

hair dishevelled straining

and I till the garden

stirring up new victims

grabbed by greedy gusts impatient for May miracles