Three Near Winter's End

Allison Meier/Atlas Obscura

  

The Gift

She gave him geraniums,

The color of embers,

To keep in his cold room.

Paris

Like a hundred thousand other lovers in the rain,

They closed a padlock on the grillwork of the Pont des Arts,


But they didn't throw the keys, and that was their mistake,

Over their shoulders into the Seine.

Joy and Hope

The mosses are in fruit.

Tonight a circle 'round the moon.

"The Gift" and "Paris" after the early and the late work of Michael Longley.

"Joy and Hope"  extracted from the Journal of Henry David Thoreau, Feb. 27, 1852.
NOTE: The locks on the Paris bridge, complete with grillwork, were removed in 2015 --
Combined weight: 45 tons.