Good of You to Come

the day holds 

so much promise
even in the early hours

I can feel the warmth on my legs 
as I travel the route
I have run all winter

a mother and father 
wander along the trail,
each with a stroller 
and a jubilant child

on the road
cars rush past
dogs leaning out happily

catching every scent 

young boys spread across the field
flinging a lacrosse ball back and forth,
back and forth

crossing a bridge,

I see a message spelled out

in brightly coloured letters

I know it’s very late

but will you be my prom date

at a nearby farm,

I stop to watch

as a newborn calf

staggers round his mother

his black tufts of fur

still wet from her tongue

in the afternoon,
sitting with the dogs

Stella and Fern sunbathing in the front garden

sprawled in the shade,
I can hear the chickens 
rooting through the wreckage 
of last year's garden,
rising in bursts of flight
when the cats come too close

hours later, lying awake 
my skin humming with heat
muscles twitching with fatigue,
I can see my neighbour's bonfire
flickering against the night sky

oh spring,

how long we have waited,
so good of you to come