May Is Here, My Dear

temperature in the seventies
weekend approaching
blithe and friendly
and meanwhile close
to the ground
around a tree
broadway traffic going by
a small girl in a smocked dress
squats to pet a pink
impatiens blossom
with her forefinger very
carefully

Alicia Ostriker has published 14 volumes of poetry, most recently “The Book of Life: Selected Jewish Poems, 1979-2011” (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2012). Ostriker received the National Jewish Book Award for Poetry in 2010, and has appeared in numerous Jewish literary journals and anthologies.