Spring Tree

A visual taste -- an almost Asian abstraction --
red cardinals perched on snow-lined limbs of
a nude crabapple tree in the midst of an April
snowstorm; strings of frozen drops dangling
on twigs; an ethereal, ornamented Spring tree.

Snow ebbs, turning to drizzle and raindrops
tickle the window, coalescing and dancing in
downward chaos as vagrant breezes stir tree
into swaying motion; an untrimmed branch
scratches glass, caressing drops and streams.

Day fever rises; thin snowlines on branches
melting; crystalized drops thaw and join kin
poking holes in the snow on the ground; and,
cardinals have departed, turning an abstraction
to a watercolor wash of weathered chalkiness.