Green waits,
fresh as frost behind winter’s wall,
to spring up and cloak us in the tender light of March.
January is dazzling!
Crisp-brittle-clean, unyielding, geometric,
all sharp edges and brazen shapes,
But soon the earth will stretch and soften;
the hills will billow their fringed emerald skirts
and offer up daffodils for breakfast.
–Ann Clark, January 18, 1988