After winter’s thousand days

Constant cold but for a rare ray teasing
too few fine hours melted, then re-freezing
harsh months chill till finally thawing through
each windswept, washed-out, worn-down winter hue
of barest brown, bleak black, stark white, drab gray
the dreary steel-domed sky at last gives way
to gilded clouds and soft sunlit caress
lightly kissing with verdant tenderness
one by one each tentative blade of grass
my warm breath barely frosts the fragile glass
twixt me and vivid violets who sing
Salutations, sweet prodigal called Spring!