Performed by Val Cole
POEM:
When you get older,
you need an efficiency expert
to help you sort out
how best to use
what time you have left.
One can become mired in minutiae,
moored in monotony.
While we don’t like change,
we are confronted with it
in every sagging muscle
and pucker of old flesh.
I’m out on my deck now.
The calls of Cardinals
And the prattle of my chickens
are filling the perfect air.
A day this beautiful
hasn’t come since, well-
since last year, at least!
Spring is irrepressible, and
oh-so precious! It is its
own reward for the gales
and drifts of Winter!
The sweet Magnolias defy
anyone’s right to dress up nice-
paragons of the beautiful in the impermanent.
Already, some white and pink petals
strew the ground,
but constellations of bloom still shine on.
Little green leaves, the size of squirrels’ ears
now festoon the Forsythia.
It has bloomed out already,
and the chickens are picking at the
yellow groundfall of little stars-a feast!
A wasp comes by, and;
while usually would be unwelcome,
today I allow him to land gently upon me
as a welcome harbinger
of the good weather that is yet to come.
So, what is the most
important thing to do?
I think I will kneel down
and kiss the Earth.
Environmental Film and Screenplay Festival 