Late Spring for a Catholic

It is a cold day for spring
bluish and keep-your-distance
an impossible time for a fling
with the Sierra Nevada

I have no snowshoes
and would die at high altitude
so I am saved from excess
and turn up the heat

Shall I brew my best tea
or save it for the visitors:
a girl with gray eyes
a man with bad scars

or shall I open the old book
where a purple ribbon marks Lent

Notes

McDaniel, Wilma. (2001) Borrowed Coats. Hanging Loose Press, Brooklyn, New York.
Courtesy University of California, Merced Library. Copyright owned by the Regents of the University of California.