APRIL

April’s mornings bring a still chill to air

That makes slumber so sound and dreams so deep

Before autumn’s tepid sunlight so fair

Shines bright enough to burst the bliss of sleep.

The skies of each day’s trek out of shyness

Begin with steely blue edged with those clouds

Primed wet to quench every garden’s dryness

Or else disperse as mists and shifting shrouds.

After high noon when breezes rise and stroke

There’s heat to warm the last of summer’s flowers

And golden fronds swish ‘round the silky oak

While hungry birds feed through long shadowed hours.

But then there comes the greatest show of all -

Cerise dusk swoops, hides daylight in its shawl.

A reminder to readers in the Northern Hemisphere:

Australia is upside down and our seasons are back to front.