The last gasps of winter

Today’s a gray, cloudy, wet-feeling day. But it’s warm. Very warm! Spring is almos here; winter almost gone.

The crocuses are poking up through the thawing soil. The earth is the yellow-brown of winter slumber. Snow has disappeared everywhere except the big piles in parking lots.

Everything is grungy. Dirt. Salt. Mud. We await the cleansing of the coming rains.

Will it snow again? Probably. I’d put money on it snowing at least two more times. Today, though, we gather around winter’s death bed, waiting for the death rattle.