Spring Thaw
Muddy frozen foot steps
Oozing between banks of snow
Winters recession
Like diseased gums drawn aside
Old teeth drop like icicles
Yard Work
Gather the four corners of the sky into your fist,
Like the ends of a blue tarpaulin loaded
With last year’s autumn leaves and snapped branches;
Haul it away behind you across the back yard,
To the edge of the ravine where winter’s water seeks its own
level,
Piped under the street and between your neighbor’s houses,
Into the marsh where the first red winged blackbird
Swings on last year’s cattails and chirrups a lyric ode
To the all-encompassing blue tarpaulin of spring chores.
Busybody
The snow is falling like nobody’s business—
So why am I writing about it?
It pirouettes beyond control,
Insistently whispering against my window pane:
Why don’t you just leave well enough alone?
Why can’t you just let snow be snow?
Lee Evans
If you have any thoughts
about these poems,
Lee Evans would like to hear them
