If you aren’t paying attention to such things
you may not have noticed the mist of faint pink
at the tips of the maples’ twigs. It’s subtle,
this waking. Maples, after all, have deep dreams.
They don’t burst from their sleep all at once.
They simply stretch a bit as the first sap rises
and take on a rosy glow at the taste of it.
(May the glow summon robins!)
This is the start of it, you know – spring,
this time of the waking of the maples.