Spring, I remembered you all these months.
I spoke of the green yard under the snow
To my slumped visitors.
I sobered the giddy neighbors.
“You may think you’re still happy,”
I cautioned, “but recall the tea roses,
The lost leaves of the dogwood tree.”

But now you have fallen upon us, Spring,
Without warning,
So much greener than I remembered.
Friends I kept from forgetting
Laugh at me as they run outside
For falling so short in your praise.

“Ingratitude” by Carl Dennis, from New and Selected Poems 1974-2004. © Penguin Books, 2004.