Dear May, a Farewell Love-letter

Happy last Day of May! Dear May, somehow you always exceed eager expectationAs you begin to nurture nature’s treed rejuvenationAs gardens start to thrill our gaze with petal-punctuationAnd overhead a minstrel plays leaf-lays in celebration Dear May, you always rouse anew, rekindled planting pleasureAs you run wooing whispers through buds bursting with bloom treasureAs you, beneath young and old feet, unfurl your finest measureWhere beauty and duty compete with lures of toil and leisure Dear May, the way you always spill with April’s remnant showersMakes worth the while it takes until you reward faith with flowersTulip chalices, bleeding hearts, allium, lilac-bowersAlways, your floral drumroll kickstarts summer’s fleeting hours Dear May, your dust is sacred, stirred by farmer’s urgent laborYour prudent lease sublimely blurred by your lime-coloured saberWaving a welkin wand that welcomes home the long-lost neighborAs nests are built and filled with featherdown and fledgling caper Dear May, it always feels as if you leave us way too soon-ohMedley of march-and-meander through days, dandeli’n-strewn-ohWe could not bear the fare-thee-well of your sweet afternoon-ohBut for the tolling of a bell that always brings us June-oh © Janet Martin