Equinox
3/20/22

Now the firstlings of spring—
lenten roses, then
crocus & jonquil
burst from the earth.
Cowbirds
laying eggs in others’
nests. How many young
displaced will perish?
No accountant in nature
for that. But we
who are more evolved
can reckon the number of dead
in Mariupol & Kyev—
the craters & hospitals,
emptied stages of theaters.
(Though none can count the scars
they will leave, the little ones
torn from their nests,
nor the wan harvest,
the lessened yields,
this summer’s scarcity of wheat.)

—Marc Hudson
from Phenologies