stasis and life take turns

maple sugaring time

here in late March in Massachusetts



snow and ice still linger

where plows have moved it all out of the way

and where sun hasn’t yet phase-changed it back to liquid,

all this world seems water-logged,

here where winter can rule with a frigid hand, 

it’s as if stasis and life take turns at the game:

like Persephone half the year here, 

half the year not,

like in Narnia with the White Queen 

denying spring as long as she can,

like with the Vernal Equinox 

as the day is torn in half between light and dark,

I am intrigued by what I learn of maple sugaring:

that for the sap to flow well

nights should be in the 20’s and days in the 40’s,

each productive day a new reawakening from winter to spring,

and then the sap boils down from 30 gallons to 1 gallon of maple syrup,

it takes winter and spring together to remember the sweetness of summer.

by Henry H. Walker

March 29, ’14