NOT AS IT SEEMS

Officially it’s spring –

A cloudy sky waterlogs

Towards the west,

Columns of drizzle

Compress into quagmire.

Officially it’s spring –

Yet a Stalinist breeze

Infiltrates from the Urals,

And bedraggled rooks seek out

Those last remaining elms

Of Gloucestershire.

Officially it’s spring –

Yet the blackthorn blossom is late,

And only coltsfoot

Bedeck the hedgerows,

Incorrigible yellows,

Wild as truant boys

Slipping into sight.

Copyright Michael Newman