May 30th
A year ago I wrote to you
of temple bells, about the silk-tassels,
how they grow like weeds, shimmer
in the wind beneath my window.
After a mild dry winter,
scant spring rain, you sing to me
of homemade tortillas, the sweet
heady taste of vine-ripe tomatoes.
Out of step with your seasons,
these cool windy mornings
my catkins dance early, grey faster,
fall even softer this year than the last.
And to think—
before you came
with this uncommon friendship,
the remarkable beauty
in distant correspondence,
I would have missed this day,
used it for a calendar, a decoration
for my wall if I noted it at all.
by Patricia Wallace Jones
Editor’s Note: The internet has given us the ability to easily form friendships with people on the far side of the planet. This poem addresses that sometimes surprising mismatch of seasons, and the gratitude that knowing one another brings.
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