walking in my garden I note
the pink heather in flower,
soon snow drops and scilla
mittened, jacketed, still
I seek a tease of color
rafts of daffodils’ leaf tips
emerge tentatively, hopeful
shadows, determined
some names elude me
I vow to remember
a few tire of lasting over winter,
don’t emerge—I’ll divide another
that overflows, plant it here
I am a novice
at the feet of grace
the dogwood will pitch
its tent of blooms, branches
held like dancers’ arms
grateful for warm sun
I shed winter clothes
before mid-summer’s crescendo
of hydrangeas, grey-blue lace framed
by petals the color of a spring sky,
I sit on the stone bench
still as a monk among alms
By Connemara Wadsworth
Connemara Wadsworth’s chapbook, The Possibility of Scorpions, about the years her family lived in Iraq in the early 50’s, won the White Eagle Coffee Store Press 2009 Chapbook Contest. Her poems are forthcoming or appeared in Prairie Schooner, Solstice, San Pedro River Review, Smoky Blue Literary & Arts Magazine, and Valparaiso. “The Women” was nominated for publication in Pushcart Prize Best of the Small Presses by Bloodroot Magazine. Connemara and her husband live in Newton, Massachusetts.