Homage to April | writermelissakemp

30 Day Poetry Challenge: National Poetry Month

Homage to April

―After William Carlos Williams "This is Just to Say"

What amazes me is this;

spring means the dance is

a waltz, just

an acquaintance between virgins destined to

green and destruction the weathermen say.

I don’t live in an ice-tray, I

reside in a sunbelt, have

chanced to hide in honeysuckle vines, eaten

stamen and pistils, the

sap an ecstasy like summer plums.

April is the cruelest month and

tornadoes begin to roll in which

accost the NOAA weather radio. You

get out a black dress that you were

preserving probably

for a day like this, saving

for the funeral, for

after you feed the kids their last breakfast.

The preacher says we must forgive

floods that drown the cat. Me

I would rather see bees so drunk they

miss the spring blossoms they were

aiming for. Delicious

is their pollen bacchanal, so

stupefied their staggering flight, sweet

as mating with a queen and

alluring like deadly nightshade, so

fetching the drone gives his life to the cold.