The Cloud-Lidded Sky

Nature's message for this day
is dismal, darkly overcast
accompanied by damp chill
and an unrelenting drizzle
beloved of early spring robins.
We set out on our quotidian
ramble in our nearby ravine.

Underfoot, on the woodland
trail, a squashed mash of fall's
remnants. A lone, brilliantly
male-plumaged Mallard duck
steams silently along the
rain-swollen ravine creek.

The bright green spears of
nascent lilies-of-the-valley
clustered about tree trunks have
made their appearance right on
schedule, joining the trout lilies
and trilliums earlier assembled.

From high on an unleafed poplar
mast a scarlet cardinal whistles
his high-pitched song, sweetly
counterpointed by a robin's
piercing trill. Interspersed on
the forest floor, small ponds have
appeared temporarily, inviting
the appearance of jewelweed.

Overnight the first tentative
thrusts of horsetails have begun
to colonize the forest floor. Ferns
begin their resolute unfurling, and
mosses gleam brightly insouciant
through the dim, filtered light
under the cloud-lidded sky.