Grey Day Poem by Diana van den Berg

This grey-green, forest day
is pregnant
with silent mists
and soft, soft rain
and sad, secret longings

... and over the hills
and far away
where you, my darling horse, lie,
under a three-and-a-half-year, guardian, plane tree
and green, green grass
and a heart-shaped flower bed
bordered with white alyssum
heart-visible in the moonlight
enclosing cat-face pansies and blue lobelias and felicias,
and golden calendulas and pink begonias and multi-coloured petunias
all of which I water and tend once a week,
may the rain
be touching and blessing you gently
in preparation
for my fourth searing spring
without you.

(21 August 2005)