An Easter Poem

Three days in a row! This poem could be a response to the prompt at National Poetry Writing Month, http://www.napowrimo.net/2012/04/day-eight/ to simply go outside, take a walk, take a drive, see what inspires you and where the inspiration takes you, though in my case (since I read the prompt after the fact) it was a response to going outside to do things that needed to be done, and in the process finding, well, whatever there was to be found, which is always a little different and at the same time always somehow familiar, but no less remarkable or wondrous for its familiarity.

EASTER MORNING

Bells ring out from Holy Trinity down the hill.

I am watering my vegetables, and when I finish that

I’ll hang another load of laundry.

Yesterday you turned on the sprinkler in the back.

Hummingbirds hovered in place on opposite sides of the yard,

waiting for the spray to circle back to them.

When you turned it off they dived simultaneously

for the feeder and then dueled in mid-air, each with his rapier

flashing, thrusting, trying to drive the other off.

The grackle who had sat on the fence, enjoying the intermittent

shower, protested loudly when it ended, his squawking

oddly melodious. Very odd, only slightly melodious.

The pomegranate has one blossom, but it’s still early.

Last year there were none. I make an oath to Persephone

to protect the fruit from insects if she gives us even a few.

The sunflowers aren’t a foot high yet and have no flowers,

but the goldfinches have returned.

I guess they find something else to eat while they wait.

The folks at Holy Trinity are celebrating resurrection

and I wish them joy. Out of despair and death, triumph.

It is that way every spring. Even when we don’t expect it,

Even when we forget, the goldfinches and grackles return,

cactus and cassia burst into sudden bloom,

and the ocotillo lifts its red flames toward heaven.


     --Draft by Victoria Stefani