Early Flowers
Pale purple crocuses
crowd beneath the apple tree
by the stone foundation
warmed by a mid-March sun.
April, I know, brings Spring
but also snow,
feather-flaked and heavy,
bends the creeping rose
low to the garden’s cheek.
If the cold should come again,
will the huddled crocus,
mustering crowd
of luminous stem and petal,
peek head from snow?
Or bow at last,
a quiet submission
to harken Spring
with its early passing?