Frühlingstraum

                         Dream of Spring

Barefoot in the yard, I tingle like a nape when touched.

All around, bees drag their dead from glittering hives.

       Here my mind knows its hold as a softness

of matter like a lake, and its thoughts as indentations

       on the lake, a near infinite rain.

I think of nothing. Then I think of coming days

I will spend with my knees in the grass,

or making love with the window open.

My hands feel weightless, upturned bodies in a deepening

                    lake of sunlight.

What should I do with them?

       I kneel and push them into the ground,

dig a hole for a bulb. I scrape my palm on a rock

                    and it bleeds into the soil

(which will bring tomatoes, strawberries). It is good

to be alive. Inside the house, I’ve fallen asleep sad

at the table again. I step through the backdoor

and go to wake myself. With my hand unwashed of dirt

and blood, I reach to touch the back of my neck.