Pale Spring

So fair, so cold, like a morning of pale spring

still clinging to winter's chill.

               --J. R. R. Tolkein

Yesterday's weather was so deliciously warm and summery,

it was hard for me to imagine that it had ever been winter.

Secretly, I nurtured a naive hope that winter was finally only a memory.

Yet this morning the temperature plummeted, 

and a pallor of gray clouds obscured the sun.

By afternoon, a fitful rain began, then eased, then began again--

 the rain clouds were reluctant to commit.

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But I noticed Bradford pear trees in the earliest stage of bloom,

and redbud blossoms getting close too.

So we can't complain that it's winter, 

but yes, more of a pale spring.

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