We're a little more than midway through; yet, I do implore:

DEAR MARCH,

(Depart!)...

My take on an Emily Dickinson poem

Dear March - You're late -     

Late to depart (for now) -

How I hoped you'd never -

Put down your sorcerer's Hat -    

A clever disguise to beguile us...

You straddle in year after year -

Breathing in our desire for reprieve -

Yet, dear March, don't you see

How weary and numb we've become?

March, please... Come sit beside me for a while -

I have so much to request -

You bring up the stairway to Spring-

I do hear the birds (now), but there's snow 

on their wing-     

Fall's maples once demurred at the very 

thought of you-

I remember how they shuddered and how 

Red their Faces grew -         

But March, no empty promises, please -   

When you both come in (and depart) like a Lion-

It's only to tease-

And all those colors still to bloom -    

Don't mar their entrance-

Don't transmit gloom-

Before long, who knocks? Oh April !!

Lay the doormat!  Light the lamp!

Your shadow warms the heart-

A Year before you call again

            Is nothing when I am expectant -        

All trifles look so trivial   

As soon as you draw closer...

My censure of March is just as sacred

As Praise for you, April-

Yet disappoint us (you sometimes do).

Oh well, May's a most lovely hue!

L.P.-G.

THAT WAS A GREAT QUESTION !!! RE: Asked at Sen. Amy Klobuchar's town hall tonight...

CAN YOU SHARE A PERSONAL EXPERIENCE WHERE YOU REALIZED THE VALUE OF COLLECTIVE EMPATHY?

... and it certainly DOES appear that Senator Klobuchar possesses the requisite bona fides to be president!

AGE NINE CAN BE SO FINE!!!

...remembering how precious you were years prior, as well

MORE RECENTLY, THERE ARE THESE EXAMPLES OF EXEMPLARY BROTHERLY LOVE!!!!!

...and we hope your special day is just awesome !!

IF I SAY "BY THE WAY" on 2-5-2019, THERE'S A REASON !

By the way...

...of course, we must add a touch of memory lane, as well!!

SOME "OTHER" SHADOWS TO CONSIDER, AS WELL

The Shadow on the Stone

BY THOMAS HARDY

I went by the Druid stone

That broods in the garden white and lone,

And I stopped and looked at the shifting shadows

That at some moments fall thereon

From the tree hard by with a rhythmic swing,

And they shaped in my imagining

To the shade that a well-known head and shoulders

Threw there when she was gardening…

I thought her behind my back,

Yea, her I long had learned to lack,

And I said: ‘I am sure you are standing behind me,

Though how do you get into this old track?’

And there was no sound but the fall of a leaf

As a sad response; and to keep down grief

I would not turn my head to discover

That there was nothing in my belief.

Yet I wanted to look and see

That nobody stood at the back of me;

But I thought once more: ‘Nay, I’ll not un-vision

A shape which, somehow, there may be'.

So I went on softly from the glade,

And left her behind me throwing her shade,

As she were indeed an apparition—

My head unturned

(Lest my dream should fade)…