After snowy masses of Bradford
pear, magnolia trees have bloomed
with flowers ahead of season. Crepe
myrtle trunks shed skin, down to
their smooth, unwrinkled layer.
But the fig— the fig has always
been preparing for bounty. Shorn
in early spring, its limbs now
heave with scalloped green.
Fruit the shape of small light-
bulbs soon will flush ruddy
cheeks as if to say look,
the world, despite all that we
are told, cannot yet be ending.
Purveyors of fine poetry since 2003.
