Hemisheres

'Three days warm, four cold,' she said.

And I laughed, for April being Spring,

I thought of September instead,

With fire teams gearing up,

And early talk of 'tinder dry',

And first signs of tinselling

Absurd in the magpie air.

That's another thing-

They swoop, that's why 

I prefer the sakura,

The looming translucence

That moves and moves

Under a milky sky.

The blossoms descend

Upon a thousand o-hanami,

Cups of sake, dry,

At an eternal evening's end.