birch road blog

Spring Wind

Be flip with us if you want to, spring wind.
Be gay and make us sniff at your slow secrets.
Be easy with us, spring wind.
Be lovely and yet be lovely not too fast with us.

If a child came crying out of a snowstorm
And sat down with secrets of new playthings,
Crying because lovelier things than ever came that year --

If a child came crying out of sheet ice,
A white carving of a lithe running torso,
Holding in its hands new baffling playthings--

If a child came crying so,
Wet and smiling, smelling of promises
Of yellow roses blowing in the river backwashes,
Potato blossoms across the prarie flat lands,
And even so much as one new honest song to sing--

If a child came so,
We would say, 'Come and sit on our back porch;
Listen with us and tell us more, tell us all you know;
Tell us the secrets of the spring wind;
Tell us if this is a lucky year;
Be lovely and yet be lovely not too fast with us.'

Carl Sandburg