Find me on Substack »

April

April is the carnal month.
The forest returns with wet desire.

Fresh blades of leeks slice through rotting remains of autumn
to release sweet-onion perfume.

Spring beauties, bolts of hot-pink lightning,
lure bumblebees to sip from virgin petals.

A ruby-crowned kinglet, his head ablaze,
sings a hurried tee-tee-tee-tee, tew-tew-tew, teedle-dee! teedle-dee! teedle-dee!

Spotted salamanders, slimy black, yellow polka-dots, slithering clowns,
crawl by night through naked woods
 to forest pools for a vernal orgy.

And through the drama you and I walk
together,
the world ripe with promise.

April.
It forsakes only winter,
and not one of our senses.

15 comments
  1. Thanks for luring us back to the Greens.

  2. Ann B. Day says:

    Your great poem aspired an April poem that I posted but it didn’t go through

  3. Ann B. Day says:

    April is pussy willows and johnny-jump-ups,
    rivulets and gushing stream, puddles and ponds,
    vernal pools full of eggs from wood frog orgies.
    April brings winds and dark clouds, then showers
    that fill the gutters and muddy the back roads.
    Then the clearing with rainbows and setting sun
    that catches the red maple flowers and turns
    gray hillsides to a rosy purple, and suddenly
    we have spring fever as we walk in a warm
    gentle April afternoon.

  4. Sharon Riley says:

    Lovely poem. Provocative! 🙂

  5. Rita Pitkin says:

    Yes! April, it’s happening. Love your poem. Love April. Thanks.

  6. Eloise says:

    Evocative, Bryan. thank you!

  7. Diane Brown says:

    A wonderful, juicy poem full of life!

  8. Dru Macy says:

    What a great poem!

  9. Lures me to run naked through the woods – if only they were not so populated with people (suddenly)!

    Enchanting and enticing poem Bryan!

    Cheers
    Bernie

Leave a Reply to Bryan Pfeiffer Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *