Lilacs

Photography by Reka Jellema. Copyright February 21, 2015.

Lilacs

This life purples before me
This cold will never kill me
implore the winter sky
tell the gray goose
to fly and harken
the cardinal, painted
on the crabapple, now

This life purples before me
Ice box air pearls
our perennials
our rosy children lost
their mittens,
snow bank burials, igloos
of yesteryear

This cold will never kill me
we look to the maples,
remembering green and holly
red berries: Chilled trees
speak to me: Take these lilacs
self-medicate, taste
the song of songs
a slender thread
spooled

Lilacs
breathe
I am not dead
This cold will never kill me
This life
purple
before me


By Reka Jellema & Jennifer Savage
Copyright February 21, 2015

---