Hello April

Here's a poem I wrote about April:

Outside Sinagua High School, April 2008

Here I recline on a bench around
noon, in sunlight and breeze. Dozy,
I could drift nicely into a nap.

All slows.

With the swaying of branches, with
my incoming and outgoing breaths,
I know this day is more comfortable,
more pleasurable than memories
of my childhood- that idiotic boy,
dazzled by rapidly flashing lights,
enamoured of alien images
protruding from gigantic
electronic screens. That stupid,
misguided boy, lacking natural affection.

But thanks be to God for
the passing of seasons, for youth
blooming into manhood, for
the embarrassments of puberty dimming,
joining wrinkles in an old forehead.

Thanks be to God, the father of my
spirit, the creator of this day, for turning
my eyes from the dark to the light
on the ground and trees before me.

This day is as good as any bird
that flew, and better - this day is
better than yesterday, or tomorrow,
or any coyote that howled or caught
a rabbit. This day is better than
any humpback whale that will breach.

Chatter floats to my ears from
the parking lot. Muffled, unimportant
chatter, meaning no more to me than
any other sound. And there is
beauty in the chatter.

Soon, when the bell sounds,
I'll walk into the darkened
school and enter the classroom
where I teach English.