Easter Flowers

The magnolia’s slender white fingers blossomed
bridal-white today, but the unblemished petals
will snow from the branches before many days pass.
The bush was two feet high when
friends planted it to honor
the memory of our daughter. Now
it reaches past the roof, flowering anew
each cruel April. As snowdrops and daffodils
push through warming earth,
so with each new grief arise images
of all my lost ones.
The dust of their passing
blows into my eyes
and tears spring up unbidden.

No plant grows amid the stone pile
and fresh-turned earth of my young cat’s grave
yet, though forsythia above his cairn burst
into full yellow the morning after he died.
Now cut daffodils and hyacinths wilt
across the stones. Before the magnolia’s white petals
rust and fall, I will plant hydrangea
by the forsythia, and surround the bushes
with rosemary.

LLC, 04-16-06, ed. 05-20-06