A strawberry June

It was mid -march before the skies turned blue again;

Lazily pulling grey curtains of winter aside.

April before we put the woollies away;

And in early May I saw the first Butterfly,

Flinging herself about on freshly dried wings.

Soon after , I was eagerly searching for Bees;

Peering, peering hopefully into every newborne flower.

By mid-May my heart was beginning to lurch,

But then to my ears came a sweet and pleasant hum:

For there revealed in busy little stripes,

A furry friend again,

All stripes ablaze with yellow pollen...

By middle May my hopes had begun to bloom!

Gardens everywhere were in sync with my heart!

My fresh new Summer eyes snatched from winter's drought

I was once again bewildered by colours fresh and gay

By May's end though, I was beginning to creep up sad

For lonely days so lost...

But June came and chased the blues away

The Bells of hope rang clear!

And I buried my nose in the grass

That sweetest smell of meadows growing clear.

By June 3, El Sol had hit me hard,

I was a sunburned thing,

and the Butterflies sang everywhere,

of places they had been.

Like them, I was bedazzled, soporific,

Sunsoaked and stunned.

I said to my faithful Heart:

"And still , and still ~ our whole Summer's bloom lies ahead!

Sweeter, and more lifegiving,

than Winter's horrid chill"

The place I always wished to be, swamped

in a roasting Strawberry June.

Mikel Lee