Jim Ross, Biltmore Ballgown 4
Digital Photograph
Like this squirrel, laying by for frozen times,
you must buy all you can lay your hands on.
Lead us not into barren storerooms, but lay in
bacon, flour, beans. Line the larder with jars
of jellies. Old lead-lined freezers packed
with venison, herbs layered in ice cubes.
Winter leads us on with longer days and leaf
tips swollen on stem ends, little Lazaruses
waiting for the lazy fingers of July to linger.
But it’s always a fly-by, no long layover, and
you must lean into the sun while it comes
or else lay low under years of leaf mold until
all the days have leapt over you.