The curtains of wild vines and tame plants thin

To reveal the exposed heart of her forest gardens.

Flashy and bright few plants show off their fine greenery.

Empty trees raise dark skeleton limbs to the sky.

Witch examines blackened mounds torched by frost, searches for life.

Finding some and finding none.

Persephone shifts and hums.

A hint of spring breezes through the gardens.

With a sigh, she reaches back to Hade’s warmth and curls

Back to sleep.

The cold winds return to snip at fingers 

and nip at toes.

Witch knows the hardest task unfurls.

In the time of climate change,

the cryptic lines “after the last frost”

mean less and less.

Clippers, loppers and shears

Are her tools this month.

Witch fears as all gardeners do,

The need to cut, prune, and reveal.

A paradox that shears both ways.

Cut to grow or Cut and kill.

Angela Lorio has been successfully living in both the 21st and 16th centuries since the mid 90’s. She has been a successful and award-winning educator for close to 30 years, teaching science at ALPHA Academy during the week, and educating the crowds at the Texas Renaissance Festival from the back of Sampson the Warhorse on the weekends. In her spare time, Angela writes, draws, sews, and follows her own Jedi path to light.