Joyce Newton

Spring
(For My Grandmother Joyce)

As spring turns to summer and summer turns to fall,
healthy leaves will darken and slowly die just like us all.
Winter will bare its cold, white fangs as each tree enters a long, silent sleep,
as silent as they were before, though much more sad and much more starving,
then most could ever dream to be.
But then, just as the trees begin to wake to the morning light,
Spring wipes away the melting snow as if it was a tear from it's child's eye,
And says in a voice so gentle and a voice so sincere,
"Welcome back and welcome home! And please have no fear!
For I am spring, not winter, the bringer of life itself!
And have not come to hurt, and only to help!
Though winter shall come again, as well as its deathly chill,
You must remember to live and be sure to get your life's fill!
Do not worry, my silly children, about what is far to come,
but rejoice and be thankful over what you have become!
Now grow and grow and grow until you can grow no more,
And learn and learn and learn until you know everything, and more!
And by this point, I assure you, winter's cold will no longer have effect,
as you will gladly embrace it in need of a nice, long rest."
And with these kind, merry words the trees no longer felt their old fear,
And decided, all together, to make the most of the new year.

By Emma Joyce Demetriou
Granddaughter of Joyce Louelle Newton