Spring is pale here,
and though the weather swings
from cold to warm to cold,
the buds have ventured out,
as startling as katydids —
the revealed preparation
of all those tiny leaves
lined up,
now throwing off
their hard, sleek, sheathes,
ready to expand
with a rapidity
that’s almost alarming —
all those precise pleats and points
starting to unfold,
ready to fill the tree,
tender but unstoppable
like millennials
stretching out
into their lives.

©Wendy Mulhern
May 12, 2014

Photo by Heather Mulhern