from Spring Songs (8)

8.

Nothing more can happen in April so I am waiting
The rain is waiting too clouds simmering in the south

The grass wants to touch you but looks away waiting
The buildings with their hands in their pockets

Gather quietly but keep a respectful distance
the afternoons light as if held up by balloons

The month has filled out the world so much its last
day will be empty it will need a day to decompress

The last hours gather around you like referees
watching an instant replay because nothing more

can happen: you have to compress the month
in your mind while the days decompress

so quickly that your memory leaps in slow motion
and the hours nod and blow their whistles

A string stretching across the stars and sky draws closer
a jump-rope in slow motion at the top of its arc

Just before you hear the sound of its rasp
on the sidewalk you must skip casually

into May your soul barely leaving the ground
because it is all so light now and you want to come back