Has Spring Sprung?

It's not working for me yet.

Perhaps it's because I'm in a new place.

In Red State Capital City Suburb, I had spring's progress precisely calibrated. First there were snowdrops in the far reaches of the backyard. Then crocuses along the sides. Daffodils and hyacinths bloomed all over town, but I particularly noticed them on W Street, as I walked home from work. Forsythia banked the side of the hill that edges E Street. Lilacs and redbud. By the time we got to tulips, warmth and euphoria had settled in.

When M was around four we came up with a spring tongue twister: Hyacinth, chrysanthemum, forsythia. You can say it in any order, but however you say it, pretty soon you'll just be going "th-th-th," your tongue flapping between your teeth.

Apparently there have been crocuses by M's school for going on two weeks, but I so rarely go to M's school that I didn't see them till today. There were daffodils too. There's barely anything on our street, though, just a few straggly shoots. I keep checking our back yard, which is harder to check than in Red State, where our kitchen table was right in front of a big window and I looked out at the back yard during every meal. So far we have nothing, but I don't know if nothing is planted or nothing is growing yet.

Mainly I look around me and see gray.

It's partly the oddness of this winter too. So many shoots came up six weeks ago, when it was warm, and then endured the last weeks of cold and more snow, prematurely yellowing their green. I wonder what will become of them.

And then there's me. I'm not quite sure what happened to the last three months, or what's going to happen next. I suppose I should be ready for renewal, but if renewal isn't here yet, then I'm not quite sure what to do.

This week I bought daffodils. They look beautiful on the dining room table.