Spring

by Maree Reedman 

My backyard is blanketed 
in lavender flowers, little trumpets, 
heralding memories of university days,
exam time, the year ending, and 
my mother,

who liked purple and blue,
how she cut down the majestic
jacaranda on her footpath
because it was close to the power lines.

There’s a family of frogmouths
in the paperbarks at work.
My niece and nephew
are getting their licences,
Dad’s going on another cruise.

My mother died in the dead 
of winter, she wouldn’t wait 
for the frangipani to sprout green leaves 
at the end 
of its old fingers.

Maree Reedman lives in Brisbane with one husband, two cockatiels, and five ukuleles. Her poetry has been published in the United States and Australia in Chiron Review, Naugatuck River Review, Unbroken, Stickman Review, Grieve, Hecate, StylusLit, and has won Ipswich Poetry Feast awards, including a mentorship with Carmen Leigh Keates.