Spring Angels 4/14/06

Spring Angels 4/14/06

It is the transverse hush
Of a cold day in spring
When the cherubs dancing
Naked dont notice their own
Shivering, wind-blown chill

Teeth knocking together they
Go about building towers
Chasing birds and butterflies
Dont mind the looming clouds
Because Its spring! Its spring!

And I stand indifferently viewing
As if apart, uninvolved
With a baggy blue sweater of
Heaviness and hopeless heartache
Thrown on haphazardly a year ago

When these giddy angels collapse
With fevers and congested lungs
I will take them in dutifully
But not compassionately. No
I cant summon such stuff

But I will play nurse maid
Bringing them soup and saltines
Urging them to have some tea
Changing soiled, vomitous sheets
With new ones, crisp and white

And when they are well
They will pay me in song
And a word for my pen
But they will not take me along
I can never be like them.

(c) Tasha Chinnock 2006