M. Hank

There was cedar in the beginning and then there were candy canes. 

There was a collapsed star.

There was light at the very end of a cave.

There was lightning that struck a tree.

There was a baby born

With a slightly bigger skull, one day.

I did not know kindness isn't always loud, 
not the grand gestures, not the 
throw-the-coat-over-a-puddle, 
because sometimes 
it is simply someone sitting on the ground 

it is finally finally finally

warm - kind of,

sunshine / soft rain / sixty degrees with a brisk step to it

that makes me think nobody but Vermonters who miss the days

of tap step / crocuses / daffodils buried in snow

Sitting at the kitchen table,

The Beauty and the Beast soundtrack

Humming through an earbud,

My mom streaking the stars

Across my fingernails,

It begins —

This thing call Spring —

With sunshine and birdsong

Slowly infused into everything.

It begins with

Deep brown rivers gauged in viscous dirt roads,

As the frozen ground thaws and overflows.