Tom Bailey
early crocuses

i.

this morning, i encountered
the first crocuses of spring.
this felt (somehow) significant.

i made a note to tell you
this, though i hardly know
if they’ll last, if they’ll

be here tomorrow or
the next day, if they’ll
make it through the snow.

and of course i wonder
if the plasticized oceans
are more deserving

of attention, if the spring
can mean anything, now
that the starlings are gone.

i made a note to tell you
this, though i hardly know
if they’ll last, and i hardly

know if you’ll care that much
for the first, small crocuses
of spring, after all.

ii.

note: my crocuses have
made it through the snow.
i check in on them each morning
where they rally beneath the beech
trees, tall and leafless still, after winter.

my crocuses have made it through the
night, have weathered hoarfrost, ice.
they glitter, now, with sunlight,
with a voice that whispers
through the cold, we grow.

<< return to the Table of Contents for New Series #7: Summer 2019, Volume 4 Number 1