We said we would paint the house white,

And send the boy to his first school-

We were talking about the future-

We would plant trees, we were saying,

Cedars maybe, something for tall green.

When your eyes spoke, you were young, you

Were quick as a tree, too, shaken.

Outside the sky cleared with high clouds,

But no shadows yet over the grass.

You ran from me to open a window.

It was not the right day, we said then,

To be in the house three alone together.

It was a day, we said, it was time now

To stop fearing and to begin knowing.

Wind blew the long curtains out, music

Blew by from the next house; voices, voices,

Walked up and down the street faster.

Outdoors we watched the young leaves,

Called out, rediscovering the old boughs

Alive, ran, laughed at nothing at all.

Music came louder, but we made it, too,

Because ground said green, the boundaries

Broke maps, and we stood the boy at a wall

To measure him, three feet, a good shrub.

It was the right time in the crazy world

To be planting, to be loving, to be blown

In a spring wind-and then the sun came out!