The Trees In Spring - jennifer m abidari

[Lawrence Robinson]

The Trees In Spring
 
you wouldn’t think gray clouds
move this fast
now or ever
until a crow dives, dropping
suddenly from the roof
blunt tail slapping the branch
he lands on, staring back
at me in my black sweater
at my table
writing a list of foods--
eggs and greens and fish and sweets
ordained to serve for spring
 
 the sky moves its clouds
 frayed over this spring turned world
too thick to puzzle meaning
no meadow exegesis
while rain and the rainfall
darken wet blossoms
chilled like the arms of girls in silk
 
I have seen the hill give way
 rain sloughing mud
towards the metalled river road
a moving slope barging trees
 unrooted, surfaced
over ground vanished
rolling into the swollen brown river.
while trees, their rings ascending
electrically to their crowns,
 have seen metropolis
snatch them from
eternal ground
I have thought
let me die standing so
when I fall
I fall straight
into the swollen brown river
food for spring
life for trees
 
	- jennifer m abidari