6 more weeks of winter

i have always ignored the predictions
of groundhogs

they have slept too long &
eaten too much human food

i trust only myself
to make a season of this landscape

are you an autumn boy?

we can agree it would be
best to remove all aspect of winter--

this has gone on long enough--

help me wake up the frogs--

turn marble in the frigid
lake water 

blue-lipped girls floating 
face-up like canoes--

warm the frogs in our mittens--

wet & slimy-- their throats
pulsing-- keeping slow-motion time--

what kind of sleep is winter?

we should ignore the lake girls 
no matter what hymnal they're using--

they make a song without mouths

we'll need to peel winter 
from our bodies: shell
of a hard boiled egg--

this is salt & sunrise--

this is our skinned knees--

breathe the green back
into each blade of grass--

knees & cold earth--

oh spring what kind of
body will you make of me?

send the gnats & the lady bugs

i bleed morning dew--

the sun wrapped in ice 
shivers like a clock-- bare hands
pointing north--

when night comes &
it's still january  we 
can make needle point of
the cornfield--

sew soy beans: dream 
jade & must

burst of the daffodils--
warrior of our skirts-- mouth
shouting open--

when i was younger
& i still had leather skin
i would stop wearing
my winter jacket in february 
to protest spring's shyness

her sulking in the horizon
on the wing-beat of
a crow--

she was never bold enough 
for me