Vernal Clinic
To regular observers, spring had never seemed
So jarringly abnormal as it did this year.
Its bright chromatic strains came winging in, some claimed,
On airships made from canvas scrap and two-by-four.
The whole three months came off as crudely improvised,
A makeshift presentation staged without a plan
That we could fathom; strange cacophonies our eyes
Beheld were never well explained by weathermen.
Bold flowers blooming out of sequence was a sign
That something was amiss. The colors were in total
Disorder, poorly matched and bleeding in the rain.
For birds, it only mattered that it wasn’t fatal.
Derangement isn’t commonplace in Nature’s ruled
Demesne, but neither are exceptions hard to find:
There’s almost nothing as disturbing or as cruel
As frosts which dare to smudge what May adeptly penned.
The classic text, incondite and corrupt, has scads
Of footnotes, thus anomalies appear legit.
If spring’s arrival disappoints, that’s just too bad—
Make do, ‘cause it’s the only spring you’re gonna get.
The Moment
About the only thing that’s certain in this world,
Besides the many taxes one must pay till death
Arrives, is how the time we think we’ve safely squirreled
Away for future need evaporates like breath
Condensed upon a windowpane. The proper way
To save the days allotted us is making use
Of them the moment they arrive, without delay.
Our rope’s too short to stand procrastination’s noose,
And any hopes left hanging there were better spent
On pulling for a worthy end: that when the sun
Has set, we’ve done a part of all those things we meant
To do some day—and while we did it, had some fun.
To dawdle while the iron lies ready on the fire
Is vain, my friend. I trust I’m preaching to the choir.
C.B. Anderson was the longtime gardener for the PBS television series, The Victory Garden. Hundreds of his poems have appeared in scores of print and electronic journals out of North America, Great Britain, Ireland, Austria, Australia and India. His collection, Mortal Soup and the Blue Yonder was published in 2013 by White Violet Press.
