Tess Lockhart

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Tess Lockhart

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Between the Quick and the Dead

Tess Lockhart

for my husband on our anniversary


In the bleakest time of year,

hope burgeons just beneath

the bare bramble where death

quickens into promise of life.


As always, greenbriar is first to hint

that something more is afoot

than just windblown bloom of garbage

stuck in naked trees.


Beyond the schmutz of snow’s debris,

trampled trudge of ashen dust 

swirls into animation once more,

asperged with sudden rains


into the smell of new mud

sung over by the rising hint

of a questionable chorus 

of young angelic frogs.


To the untrained eye, 

it’s all muck and muddle

of winter’s nadir 

when we’re all played out,


wearied by the infernal internal

reflection of isolation

at the end of ourselves

at the end of it all.


But to those who look and listen,

the soft sucking of the mud 

is life popping out of the grave 

back into time. 


Snowdrops and crocus and daffodils

turn tentative leaves to the sun,

from tendrils embracing the intimation of hope

mysteriously found within moldering leaves of fall.

 

Gossiping birds skitter

on lengthened light

that’s had its cloudy shroud

blown blue open by insistent winds.


It's a favorite time of year

when the anticipation of flowers 

bloom in memory 

to correspond to our wedding day:


the sun promised deceptive heat,

though the air was still quite chilly

with last gasp of icy snow

on cusp of horizon's forecast. 


Yet, in holy warmth 

of love's familial blossoms,

hope burgeoned as tentative hands entwined

to choirs of friends singing awe-filled "Alleluia!"

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