Today is the first day of Spring,
a significant moment when we shift into
a different rhythm of sleep and wakefulness.
When the dark turns back on itself
like thick rind peeled from a fruit
to reveal its golden glow.
That warm feeling returns,
not just superficially - much deeper.
Time has chance to saunter - people do too.
They find a moment to talk with each other-
too hot to rush off to wherever it is they're going.
****
Queueing in the supermarket requires patience.
People casually chat at the checkout
exchanging snippets of gossip as though
they've not spoken to a soul all winter.
Patiently I wait in line at the rapid-serve
with my punnet of strawberries,
their tempting fragrance filling my nostrils.
For a moment I am elsewhere-
in a sunlit field, hovering over row on row
of undulating furrows, where shy fruit
hides under spread leaves-
the ones that got away you might say.
Abruptly, my distant view's obscured
by an unfamiliar voice:
You are English-yes?
I had been studying his back,
muffled in a woolly facade of Tweed.
For him, it was still Winter.
Ah - An English rose - yes!
He tells me how I resemble his wife
and how she adored strawberries.
(simultaneously he waves over his shoulder
to somewhere in the past)
He says he will never forget her,
that once you stop remembering,
eighty years of life becomes meaningless.
A warmness spreads between us
like the weight of a cello concerto.
A kind of sad happiness.
Later in the day, under the almond tree,
I **** on season's first fruit.
My tongue curls around a mouthful of
forgotten language.
I am not disappointed.
It is impossible to believe how good it tastes-
like life sometimes,
when strangers offer a few kind words,
filling the days with sweetness-
the Summer coming.