what winter does

is make us forget how

May splendifies the earth

from the drabness

and brown of hibernation

to

greens so bright

and neon

filtering

in the light of a

spring sunrise

that you forgot the colors existed.

what winter does

is make us forget

the smell of lilacs,

though we

think we recall it

in the dead of

january,

but it’s just

a memory,

because that

first small scent

of spring lilac –

the memory was

nothing like this.

what winter does

is make us forget that

its complete silence,

its stillness,

its full calm,

was preparing us

for what we

forgot.