First Green

For lo, the winter is  past, the rain is over and gone; 

the flowers appear on the earth;

 the time of the singing of the birds is come.

Song of Solomon 2:11-12

Even before the grass blades struggle up

And teen boys sigh at the vision 

Of lawns to mow—lawns green and plush—pulsing

Growing faster than

A five-year-old boy thinks he can run;

Before that—in March—daffodils whiter than 

The snow of December,

Ruffled like little girl's Easter Sunday petticoats,

Are full of green—green—miraculous—marvelous—green.