Desert Spring

Long, dark Ohio nights
give way to sunlit days.
Frosty Dakota evenings pass,
now sweater-wearing time.
Flowers bloom in Georgia
within the lowland haze.
New England churches painted
from door to bell tower climb.

Snowmelt nearly finished
as rivers fast and wide
release the fearful pressure,
small northern towns rejoice.
Greenhouse shoots join
planted seeds outside,
while Midwest farmers pray
with fervent, married voice.

The cities of the east
are primed for what will be
within the next few months
as the awakening unfolds.
Visitors arriving on
their pilgrimage to see
long desired objects,
tales wait to be told.

The northwest has a too-fleet
calling from the heat,
and even that is tempered by
summer winds and rain.,
but most are glad to be
without the snow and sleet
of winter, and welcome back the
season’s expats, yet again.

In the southwest the spring is
viewed more with a touch of worry,
as the Snowbirds leave the deserts,
some east or northwest bound.
Winter’s days of sun and warmth
yield a different story
than in the nation’s other reaches,
where summer does not wound.


Desert falls and winters,
and most clearly, spring,
are the reasons people
visit, and why many choose to stay.
but those remaining after March
know this one true thing,
that for this beauty, summer’s
heat is our yearly price to pay.

It’s not the small reminders,
with the early heat of May.
With nights still cool, it
still allows a dance or two, a song.
It’s that we know
spring’s rapid days
too soon are summer’s.
My god, they get so long.