May is made feeble by
the smiling cruelty of a spring cold snap,
its bright days of pallid light now glowing vein blue,
its petals crinkling closed and trembling in the sharpened breeze
        like eyelids over feverish sleep,
its deep grasses with the lush chill of night sweats.
Tender life holds itself tightly
as the sickness settles in for another night.