April

"April is the two-week-old kitten, the 

month-old lamb, the six-month-old heifer,

the two-year-old girl.

Too young to know it has either past or future,
 it wears the ribbon of the fleeting present
 as part of itself--a crisp bowknot
of iridescent taffeta changing with the colors of the sky

from the pale pink of dawn
 to the pale blue of noon
and the dusty rose of sunset.

It dances on legs too unsteady to support it,
 but they are unaffected by the pull of gravity
and touch the feathery pillow of the earth
only to spring away."

Gladys Hasty Carroll