Robins at full blast, singing of mating, 

singing the joy of eating fat worms – dandelions – 

White violets, bachelor's buttons, tender weeds 

of white that sway in sudden winds – 

white crab-rose petals, white clouds marching 

across blue sky, painfully blue sky. 

Sudden warm rains that fickly become ice, 

sodden grass: green emerald grass that 

bursts under foot, green grassy clover, green 

smells – green shoots! Maples! Maples 

that multiply! burgeon forth, become a galaxy 

of fluttering green wings, green shooting maples! 

making merry destruction of green lawns, 

and gutters and gardens – young maples, 

stubborn maples, all-over maples – and the robins – 

 Plato, sweet friend, you were wrong. This came first.