Read Me!

Not so long now, bird of spring...
     don't rush and wreck this delicate thing,
     breaking apart the ugly air just to
     release a piece of breathless care with

haste, and carry it to the frigid sky
that sleeps on your feathery back.
     (don't speak to me unless you'll come back!)

     could you carry the nascent snowflake?
          whisper to it and let not it break?

it has a back that carries many friends
     to share all its angular ends and
     to coat the bare branch of my yard and
     to cool the blistering heat of dawn and
     to lick my Earth like fickle frosting
sweetened to grain by gentle tossing.

and then when it does as it wants...

Carry yourself back
to where you belong.