Cemetery Poplars

Equinoctial Meandering

Poplars reach toward the sky
with fingers gnarled and pale
while at their base laburnums
rattle seed pods in the gale.

As sunshine warms the grass beneath
a magpie strutting past
with folded wings like hands he looks
to break his nightly fast.

An iron fence to separate
the boneyard from the park
I walk along and listen to
the blackbird and the lark.

Another week or two until
the leaves are clothed in green
the scent of spring upon the air
where winter's chill had been