First Signs

Today the wind trudged in from the south
and opened my door with eager fingers;
I lifted my head as if in a crowd
a friend had spoken my name.
I sniffed for rain and spoke to a bird
on the change in the weather; I looked at a cloud,
and behold, the cloud stirred! And out in the yard
a gander and goose were spreading by mouth
the news they had heard. Oh, excitement is starred
on the calendar’s page when the little pigs come,
when cats sit in the sun, when drifts disappear,
when snowdrops and crocus—not yet named aloud
but only hoped for—are suddenly here!