Spring Comes To The City

One March night the wind shifts southerly

and throughout the next morning

the sun

means it.

Within hours all the gray snow

changes phase.

Bubbles seep up

through cracks in the sidewalk

as though mystery fish

were waking, beginning

to breathe.

Downtown grimy taxis and buses

plunge through

submerged avenues,

splashing hugely:

graceless swimmers,

they practice all day.

On the wet walk, carefully

dressed women

pick their way, feline,

in their precious and

dangerous shoes.

Inside boxes of shop window glass

bevies of tall plastic beauties

in gauzy print dresses

are holding their exquisite wrists

in mid-flex and

tilting their narrow hips

into spring.