Слава Україні!

Ukrainians repulsing Russian tanks,
remember throwing Nazis out before.
The women and retirees in their ranks
nurse no delusions in the present war.
The Tzarist empire Gorbachev renounced
holds no nostalgia for the Kremlin's yoke.
The prospect of oppressors getting trounced
to many, seems the century's best joke.
Old dreams, that Europe could know lasting peace--
As Kant sketched out, two hundred years ago--
had dimmed as fascists everywhere increased
and yet moved forward, be it fast, or slow.
Sunflowers sprouting in the vernal mud
bloom brightest where they've drunk invaders' blood.

under pressure

The crocus thrusting past the dregs of snow
to pass its genes along, can't miss the date.
Banked glucose from last Fall's spent now to grow
to rendezvous with bugs that pollinate.
While salmon hatching out in gravel beds
rely on plagues of insects to wax great,
concatenated species, "food" and "fed"
choreographed to each proliferate.
'Til CO2 knocks all of this awry
each Spring thaw sets another record-mark;
red photons that should leak into the sky
get tangled in our blanket, 'though all's dark.
Darwinian biology of change
may not keep up as Climate gets deranged.

glimmers

Fresh snow-melt churns and scours the turbid creek
and crocuses thrust leaves and flower-buds forth
this February thaw may prove a freak
rebirth seems imminent, here in the North.
While Florida, and Texas suffer snow,
our Winter's preternaturally mild
caressed by the warm, moist Southwestern flow,
the grumpiest is presently beguiled.
Tomorrow night may bring another frost,
the jetstream that had veered, perchance will back.
Untimely vernal blossoms may be lost
like sunset's colors winking into black.
Dark months before the skiers' final fling,
imagination grasps at straws of Spring.

potential II

The morning glory that all night laid furled,
now blossoms wide to greet the spreading dawn.
In synchrony with our rotating world,
celestial clockwork animates its pawn.
Bright metaphor twined on my garden gate,
of mind encountering a novel light,
as alkaloids make one hallucinate,
igniting sparks across what had been night.
The information waiting to upload's
mere gibberish unless you hold the key.
The plan no planner planned's all there in code
but locked away until you set it free.
Those synapses don't fire except at need;
the phenotype lies latent in the seed.

potential

the morning glory that all night laid furled
now opens wide to greet the spreading dawn
in synchrony with our rotating world
celestial clockwork animates its pawn
bright metaphor twined on my garden fence
of mind encountering a novel light
as alkaloids seduce intelligence
to scatter sparks across what had been night
the information waiting to upload's
mere gibberish unless you hold the key
the plan no planner planned's all there in code
but locked away until you set it free.
that synapse only fires when there'a need;
the phenotype implicit in the seed

reborn

the compost-bin recycles kitchen dregs
to make the loam that nurtures daffodils
and bunnies strain to lay those pastel eggs
as longer days dispel the dark and chill
the monochrome of Winter yields to Spring
and blossoms blaze where there'd been slush and frost
botanic gems bedeck the hills with bling
to lure a pollinator, damn the cost!
the resurrection's played out by the Earth
Persephone or Mithras fit as well
as Christians' tale of death and then rebirth
and no one needs to ever rot in Hell
let's dance for Easter but dispense with Lent
life's far too short to be so grimly spent