how she comes to life in small, persistent rebellions
how she always finds a way
to keep on breathing
how we say with our mammal mouths, ‘look it is Spring’
and then, climbing straight back into our lives-inside-our-lives, we turn to others for answers, for the secrets
to joy
but here is the goat-willow
silky against the breeze
and the flag iris in the marsh slowly getting dressed
in their going-out clothes
and us, with our lives and our one-thousand-ways-to-be-busy, holding ourselves hostage, in the midst of it all.

© Liezel Graham 2023

{📷 the goat-willow quietly announcing that Spring, dressed in her finest, is slowly walking up the stairs to the grand ballroom}

blink at the brightness of your own life, and you’ll miss this.

pay attention.

the days are really few.

liezel