"For a Friend Lying In Intensive Care Waiting for Her White Blood Cells to Rejuvenate After a Bone Marrow Transplant" by Barbara Crooker

"Woodland Spring" by Morna Rhys

                                                    The jonquils. They come back. They split the earth with
                                                              their green swords, bearing cups of light.
                                                    The forsythia comes back, spraying its thin whips with
                                                             blossom, one loud yellow shout.
                                                    The robins. They come back. They pull the sun on the
                                                              silver thread of their song.
                                                    The irises come back. They dance in the soft air in silken
                                                              gowns of midnight blue.
                                                    The lilacs come back. They trail their perfume like a scarf
                                                              of violet chiffon.
                                                    And the leaves come back, on every tree and bush, millions
                                                              and millions of small green hands applauding your return.

"For a Friend Lying in Intensive Care Waiting for Her White Blood Cells

to Rejuvenate After a Bone Marrow Transplant"

 by Barbara Crooker from Selected Poems. © Future Cycle Press, 2015.