FORTY SHADES OF GREEN

Despite a number of false starts, Spring finally appears to have arrived in Guernsey.
It provides me with an opportunity to air this short poem.

SPRING

Green mariners, young leaves soft as skin,
are gathering before a tall tree’s mast.
A bright, fresh crew,
they have a season’s time
to learn the ropes.

Come September,
we will witness their return to port,
brown-parchment-skinned,
rum-soaked,
no wiser than before.