Second Place?

The Daffodils always get there first

Somehow.

As if a quiet, fastidious time keeper

Winds them up with winter gears

For the high moment of burst

Like a coo-coo clock thrusting open

It’s door with a songbird announcing

Spring’s arrival

And yet your silent second arrival

Does not go unnoticed by me

You hide your color bloom

Within plain green hemmed skirt

As if a patient, second hand store

keeper sews them up

with winter’s lingering threads

Until the side street sidewalk sale,

A delight waiting for those

who happen to stroll by to notice

Silky streaks of pinks

Creamy swirls of yellows,

Pastel patterns of purples

Smiling at the afternoon sun

Although you are second place by design

Dear Tulips I honor your gifts

Arriving just in time

To raise the colors of renewal in me

Purple’s presence of patience

White’s whipped soft peaks of grace

Orange’s organic cultivation of cheer

Pink’s playful return to innocence

Yellow’s yawning, relaxing open

mouthed to sun

May Spring’s unfurling

in all the places, spaces and paces

Bring as much renewal

to the private garden of soul

as to the public landscape of society

May Springs unfurling in natural time

Remind us all

There is no second place spirituality,

All Souls journeys right on time…