I look out my window at the gray world. Sprigs of green glimmer against a backdrop of drab and drear. The yellow buds of the daffodils hang limp above their slender stalks, and when the wind pushes the snow and rain against them, they tremble as if they too are cold. A robin huddles in my back hedge, her head pulled down, her tiny body stout against the breeze.

I look out my window and pull my sweater a bit closer.

“Darned. Spring. Storm.”

The daffodils shiver in agreement.

The robin shakes its feathers and darts away— a brownish red streak against a watercolor world.

© Katie Baker 2022

---