There’s no way to turn off the days’ lengthening, no
way to stop the gnats gathering like dust against

the backdoor or the late moths stacked around the porch
light’s slanted shine.  This is the season that loses

night, an outgrown black sleeve showing off a pallid
wrist. It arrives stinking of new weeds and frog spawn.

You can't resist the bob and blow of its standard
weathers, the breeze and shower that decorate its

branches with dogwood blossom, its sodden soil with
tulip and daffodil. Unpredictable

as trout, spring days won’t lie flat. They glisten and slide,
rise up, slap their tails on a planked dock and flip back,

slow to quit the pond’s thaw and sloppy ease.
Take in a lungful of the season. Undress for months.

From Fieralingue

Share this
Continue Reading
About the Author

Wendy Taylor Carlisle lives in the Arkansas Ozarks. She is the author of four books, including, The Mercy of Traffic, winner of the Phillip H. McMath 2020 Post-Publication Award and five chapbooks. Her work appears in Atlanta Review, Mom Egg Review, pacificREVIEW and this spring Doubleback Books reprinted her 2008 book, Discount Fireworks as a free download.