VERNAL EQUINOX

 

Light is different now,

          not just that the day is as long as the night,

          but that it strikes head on

          instead of arriving at an angle.

 

It has a new clarity,

washes off blurred beginnings,

creates a sharp focus,

exposes cherry blossoms destroyed

by a night’s deep freeze,

          highlights bird and squirrel feeding frenzies,

          unveils the forest floor bare of underbrush,

          warms the beech trees’ tawny leaves

                   still branched and shifting

in the wind before

they fall.

 

It stretches out the length of the trees

                   to greet the stars,

          sheds images of small spaces,

peers into deep wells of mystery

that surrounded long nights,

          uncovers what we can know,

                   all the way back to the beginning

of the first light.

 

 

©cmheuer, 3/2023