Love's Vernal Equinox

There is a time, early,
in the meeting-mating dance
of soon-to-be lovers
when the heart rises up
in earnest, full and aching,
open as a petal blossom.
When lips leap to say, "I love you"
but pull back, furling those words
like the fronds
of sweet, young
fiddlehead ferns.

While the ice lets go
and smelts start their nightly runs,
two hearts race in unison--
Two minds drink in possibility--
inhaling the newness of each other.

Love is stirring
as ardently as spring.
It arrives just as suddenly,
with a warming breeze and the joy
of longer light on evening waters.

Be still and wait.

If it comes,
it will be in a rush of birdsinging,
frogpeeping, rainspattering,
crocusbursting, budswelling,
riverrunning, mudstomping,
fieldburning, grassgrowing,
sunwarming, groundsoftening,
daylengthening
splendor
that you cannot miss.