March Madness by Elaine Reardon

Sometimes early spring splatters violets

other times a resurrection of winter

impassable mud-thick roads

birds whistle and beg

any useful thing to build nests

Maples have buckets hanging

when sap runs fast

churches flip pancakes

for mud season breakfasts

deer reach into the front garden

to graze on dry brown grass 

hidden for months beneath ice

dark clouds heap high

another nor’easter,

dumping a foot of snow, 

breaking tree limbs

downing electric lines

closing back roads

we sit to watch the shimmering

aftermath when soft winds push

snow from the white pines

Elaine Reardon is a poet, herbalist, and educator. Her chapbook, The Heart is a Nursery For Hope was published by Flutter Press in 2016. She’s recently been awarded the Beal Poetry third place prize(11/18), was shortlisted at the Hammond House Poetry contest in December, as well as the Writer’s Digest Poetry Contest. She has a website at elainereardon.wordpress.com