Spring begins with skunk cabbage
erupting through the rotted earth,
the rank symbol of winter’s passage

Before fish start to rise to scavenge
bugs drifting in their surface berths,
spring begins with skunk cabbage

Birds see, on returning to challenge
still coldness with their chirpy mirth,
the rank symbol of winter’s passage

Well before the squirrels can scavenge
enough to fill them out in girth,
spring begins with skunk cabbage

As the sun starts to gain advantage
the trees see in their budded rebirth
The rank symbol of winter’s passage

For as the cold lessons in damage,
before other life sets out its worth,
spring begins with skunk cabbage,
the rank symbol of winter’s passage.

Ed Ahern resumed writing after forty odd years in foreign intelligence and international sales. He’s had over two hundred fifty stories and poems published so far, and six books. Ed works the other side of writing at Bewildering Stories, where he sits on the review board and manages a posse of six review editors.

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