Three years on and it's spring again

1 August 2009We turned the corner into August today, Mum. Good,You would say — we’ve made it through winter. It’s spring.No matter that you changed seasons a month ahead of everyone else;Nature always backed you, and this year is no different.There’s a magnolia budding open on Hiropi Street, andThe gardens are full of bulbs. I imagine that at home,It’s the same. The plum tree will be beauty incarnateAt the edge of the bottom block; snowdrops will greet everyVisitor. Dad will be mowing the lawns more often, andSome nights may not even need a fire. The days willLengthen, and the rhododendrons be in full flight.And I wonder, how can all this still happen, without you thereTo name it? Will it be like this every year now?A provisional spring? Or is that another job you’veLeft for me — to witness, to hope, to sing?