Love’s Return

Love’s Return

thaw—
chameleon hylas
swarm the moss-green ponds
and buds of water lilies
arise from stalks
among the mottled pads—

I thought you were gone,
buried under hills of snow—

now you return

in the low hum of bees,
the soft whisper
of butterfly wings

I feel you near
in the warmth—

yet I somehow know
you have always been
with me in the cold.

— D. G. Vachal 2026

Image: Seerosen (1915) by Claude Monet