Poetry Thursday: Ides of March, Ides of April

We approach the Ides of March.  It's a windy, windy day here, which makes me think of various weather systems that may be clashing across the country. 

Later today I go to a reception for an artist's show.  It will likely be her last show, as she has pancreatic cancer.  Earlier today, a smaller group of friends will celebrate my Hindu friend's 50th birthday.  In the background of my brain, the constant backbeat of knowledge that one of my oldest friends has stage IV esophageal cancer.

My brain threatens to settle into an Ash Wednesday funk--I worry it will extend beyond Lent.

My brain flows have made me think of an earlier poem I wrote.  I don't have as much time to write an essay today, so here's a poem for our Thursday.  Does it capture a Lenten mood?  Or is it better for the Easter season?

 

The Ides of April

 

Mid April, when bills come due and debts
must be paid.  Both winter and summer battle
for dominance and rip the landscape
with tornadoes and late spring snows.

Good battles evil, captives set free

by way of forced and bloody frenzies.  Refugees
driven from their homes trudge down dusty
roads towards a desert destiny of freedom.

A gospel of radical love battles entrenched

orthodoxy.  We must sacrifice our lust
for structure and rules, our yearning
for punishment.  We must arc our minds
towards grace and unconquered redemption.

We must be as flowers who battle

against the frozen ground, who thrust
themselves towards a distant sun
in the hope of a future warmth,
a profuse explosion of fiery blooms.