APRIL SNOW

Rowe Sanctuary - 1000 Cranes

APRIL SNOW

Except for tulips

red is not the color of spring.

Not red of cardinal, radiant

against new snow,

not this lean fox

trotting through the storm,

unaware of cold or the fact

that it's the twelfth day of April.

Maybe a poem will come to me

today and I'll paint words on it,

shape the page into a boat

like those old Chinese poets did,

launch it onto a last floe of ice

or fold the poem into a red-crowned crane,

whirl it up into the wind.

- mimi