II. Cardinals

--Kevin Young

Today I do not know

       what the trees will do—

barely believe tomorrow

they will bloom

       whites & blues, the dogwood

winking at you.

Reed about

       my waist. Tomorrow

something will give way—

green will crowd

       the winter out—

but today all brown, the sky

& ground devour

       each other, swallow

us down. What lives

in the buffeting

       must bend.

The cedar out-

lasting winter—

       how it leans, sheds

limbs like a soldier.