the sunlight stayed with us
throughout the hour
and in my surprise
I almost laughed,
for even now
as we hunch our shoulders
and grit our teeth
against the icy wind,
spring is stealing in
a minute at a time
and will not be finished
until it is all here
and the grass is warm
enough to lie down in
and fall asleep.
The T’ai Chi, too,
was a bit of a thrill
as we learned a new turn
and then found out
that what follows
is a series of things
we’ve done already,
so we got to flow along
for quite awhile,
maybe a whole minute,
without instructions.