The Greening

Morning comes to greet me –
 lilac and marigold unfurling the sky.
Clouds of pink drift the cherry trees,
 a brown thrasher charming
the branches of a cottonwood where nubs
 of green jut and swell.

The rumor of Spring laces the early light,
 shadows just a fading bruise.
Where I least expected it, a thaw –
 witch hazel, hydrangea, my heart.
A vireo whistles in the redbud,
 and the light – it lingers…

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KB BALLENTINE’s seventh collection, Edge of the Echo, is scheduled to launch in the Spring of 2021 with Iris Press. Her earlier books can be found with Blue Light Press, Middle Creek Publishing, and Celtic Cat Publishing. Published in Crab Orchard Review and Haight-Ashbury Literary Journal, among others, her work also appears in anthologies including In Plein Air (2017) and Carrying the Branch: Poets in Search of Peace (2017). Learn more at www.kbballentine.com.

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