Spring
All day today the ice melted.
My name is Queen.
I haven’t melted at all
though I am soft
and getting softer
until I will pardon you all.
I watch benignly as one by one
you slink off down diminishing avenues
to somewhere less central.
I pardon Jimmy who egged on Joe
who threw the snowball at Jean
and I pardon Jean for wiping off the snow
as if snow were something that should go.
Even the grass is pushing snow aside.
I can feel it rising up inside me, too.
I pardon it
and get on with my reign.