Theme in Green

1.

In the green time, everything
not too tied to itself changes
in the way that means “survival.”

Like becoming awake again after a long,
anxious, dreamless sleep, an unremembered
swim in some elemental depth whose warmth
became almost too much to take, though the
unfamiliar outside is still so cold & unrelenting.

Until it finally gives in to the spin & tussle as light breaks.


2.

This year’s newest green is ruddy cheeked
& happy, mostly, like fresh from the pub,
tired but content, once his temper is satisfied.

He exists in that space beyond happiness,
beyond the ability to smile, laugh, or sigh.
Complete hopefulness, another boy born from
March’s stubborn belief that change is imminent
& brings a string of chances for replenishment.

So much is learned so quickly in a world of wind & weather.


3.

Everything conceived must grow by waiting.
What is accomplished in the seasons between is
impossible to understand once expectation turns to reality.

Nothing breaks harder than a season of ice.
But the green fuse that hopes & hopes, the push
of the newest needful thing: these are the markers
of ongoing life. Like Thoreau’s pines remembering
the sound of breeze, a boy opens his eyes in the sun.

This is what it means to be born into a world already so old.