The Earth Turns South/The Eternal Courtesies

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4419897The Earth Turns South — The Eternal CourtesiesClement Richardson Wood

THE ETERNAL COURTESIES

March. . . . The gully is harsh and cold,
Jagged with outpushed rocks and naked tree-trunks,
Pocked with dust-spotted snow, crumbling and treacherous,
A petulant trickle in the stream bed.

April—and over night it wakes!
A rainbow mist buds on the trees,—
Gray and timid green, ashen crimson and gold,—
The emerald flaunt of skunk-cabbage laughs by the stream-bed,
The hooded pitcher-plants, in arrogant red, among them.
Spring beauty and violet hillocks pimple the hillside,
And the golden sunbursts sparkle here and there,
The lily-like adder's tongue, graceful, glowing.

O month of the fitful sun and rain,
Thanks for these sweet courtesies!