Spring's Path

Spring’s Path

You can have absolutely
no idea
where you’re going,
and still be
on a good path.

Or,
as I like to say,
when maps
have failed me,
it is I who has
failed the maps,
and I am walking
or driving around
in squiggles.

“I am not lost.
I just do not know
where I am!”
There is
a significant difference.

Here
on my island
it snowed Friday
and this morning!
A few joyful flurries
late yesterday,
and a solid burst
in the middle of the night.

Heading back
from afternoon errands,
I had wanted to photograph
The thick white flakes
blowing sideways
against the spring green,
but neither my camera
nor my presence of mind
were handy.

Flurry
was both
noun and verb,
and flew against
the kind of sunny sky
that makes you certain
a rainbow is near.

Like pieces of Styrofoam
driven by a wind machine,
fluffy, airborne alien visitors
landed on my hair
and windshield.

I watched them
carefully
for as long
as they remained intact,
and as they melted
into miniature puddles
I was reluctant
to say good-bye.

I tell you,
the path through Spring
winds in unknown
directions;
green, white,
and so much more.

Alex Shapiro April 20, 2008