I declare it Spring

and the calendar be damned

for the red-wing blackbird

is flashing his epaulets

and the female alights

on last year’s cattail

shaking a flurry of downy seeds

into the warm breeze of the marsh

The robin hunts his worm

and throws wild music into the trees

like fistfuls of gemstones and glass.

I open my coat and drink sunlight;

follow, with my eyes, a rabbit track

into the willows and dogwood

and even the devoured worm

sings his song.

Marc Beaudin has published three chapbooks of poetry: “When

God Was a Child,” The Lost Writings of Miscellaneous Jones,”

and “Saginaw Songs” with fellow poet Al Hellus. His first novel,

A Handful of Dust, was published in 2002. His work has been chosen

for inclusion in an anthology of contemporary American poetry

in Turkish translation to be published in Ankara, Turkey. Information

on his work can be found at:

http://healtheearth.tripod.com.