Spring Destiny: Defiant Life

spring has awoken the garden;
the summer purslane
is back in its warming bed;
shoots burst open
the earth's ruddy shell
and brighten their eyes;
green stubs spill everywhere
shimmering against
the wind's colourless hand,
shivering as it once did
by your hands' devise;

every living thing fulfils
a spring destiny
written by you,
the garden speaks
in all the places you once knelt;

it were as though
you could come down again at any moment,
to feed the thirsty yearning
for a harvest of shine,
to drip life source into the soil,

there is a promise of you
in the air; summer is close,
where the world
will address the tops of trees
with a sunny speech
in the living language
of an exhilarated wind,

to speak to a season that carries
seeds to impregnate the day
with the coming nights, decorated
by inner stars that strengthen
all necessary light
to see your legacy grow;

and in each morning, defiant life
will push back the biting snow,
which similarly can cover all
with every touch
intricately individual,

but this is a brightness
that will not melt;
there is no mark on me
left by you
that will thaw in any heat;

the purslane will speak of you
to the jasmine already married
with ripening earth, breeding
heady perfume to decorate a bed
for the sudden guest of summer rain,
or ready for any stern wind
that may twist them to pieces,

your memories will live
to the last like them:
waiting for arrivals
in a wrap of scent,
of spring and summery dew,
with a fragrance that
seeps into the brain; laughing,
tossing their brilliant heads
to a calling mind
lost in a hungry air.

From the collection: "The Story of Living Things" >>

Main Index | Part 1: "A Garden's Spring Destiny" - page one | two | three