Somewhere between snowdrifts
and snowdrops lies mud season.
The onset of April heralded by
A dawn chorus belting creek songs.
Constant, sound of water. Drips.
A million rivulets escape high ground.
Dogs sink down to their shoulders.
Daring young crocus and daffodil
Their swords poke through the thaw
Only to be repeatedly snow-sheathed.
Tracks in early trafficked trails. Dirt.
Bluebirds forage frosty spring soil.
In the know, gardeners stand ready
Realtors beach bound with bunnies.
Here, we hide Easter eggs in the snow.
woodpecker banging—
on the doorstep
of spring
As a retired airline pilot, Andrea Eldridge completed her MFA in creative writing at UC Riverside-Palm Desert. Her writing has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize for poetry, published in journals celebrating Japanese forms, and anthologized in Contemporary Haibun Online. This year, she won first place in the Samurai Haibun Contest, and her story “Strange Birds” won the Solas Award for Best Travel Writing in the women’s category. Air & Space/Smithsonian Magazine continues to publish her narrative essays. Andrea now lives with her husband and dogs on a mountainside in Idaho.
