David Michael Jackson

ESSENTIAL IN SPRING

selfishness is essential in spring
as essential as giving

or love

and necessary for both

it is selfish to sit on the deck and

feel the spring air on my face and

do

nothing

what is it that I am doing

what is it that I want

is it the words which will throw themselves

across the horizon like those northern lights and lead you to

me

you too are fragile and

you too will surely break like the ice above the doorway when spring

hits you in the face

hits you with a lily in the yard or

ploughed earth

hits you just when you thought you were dead like the barren winter land

and you find yourself with seeds in your palm

and plans

***

The spring blossoms
promise everything.
They deny the knowledge of fall,
of winter,
they
are innocent in the soft breezes.
Like a child the spring blossoms sway
and await the nest.
I am glad to see my friends.
I am glad to have made it through another
winter of
drab hungry sadness to
meet with the blossoms, to
breathe again the scent,
of spring
in a world which has no sense to
offer, no wealth of reason
except for my friend, the bumblebee.
We have common friends, he and I.
Together we will visit them
gathering fragrance
and food
***

I Wish I Knew Rosa
I wish I knew Rosa, but what would I tell her?
That I stood up in the back of the bus,
or that I sat down n the front with her.
Quietly in my corner, I wonder.
Don’t start a fuss Rosa.
are you crazy?
What you thinkin’?
they won’t hang you?
They’d hang you, dear Rosa.
so run, don’t expect that seat
run for your own good
for your family
run
so we are left with that my dear sweet lady, who,
more than the speeches,
more than the names in
history books, the lady who
sat down in the front
and did not
run