the first shower of spring

The title above seems to make it seem that this will be a dreamy blog about the first shower of spring, after a long hard winter in upstate new york - when you see the first leaves come out lining the gnarled branches, when you can smell the wet damp fragrance of the earth, making you aware of all the possibilities it has hidden beneath it, there is an obvious sense of contentment that fills you........... yes all of these factors are latent in this piece, I am not denying any of that - I was struck with an odd kind of a joy, when we suddenly had glorious blue skies and sun that burnt into your skin a nice amber glow, i loved it, I made my students come out in the sunshine and read Much Ado About Nothing......... it was simply glorious, I liked the winds too which blew around skirts and hats and sometimes people also, and the rain that came with it brought with it promises of lush green grassy slopes on campus and a beautiful bottle green nature preserve again. But this was not the whole story.................... i guess poets in an effort to make everything appear beautiful leave out the realities of the situation. so today i take up the gauntlet to talk about the other side of the first Spring shower.

The true story of what happens after the first shower of Spring:

It was Monday that the weather began to change - it went from sunny to cloudy but i still sat outside beneath the tree hoping to get a few more mins of sunny warmth. In about another half hour the cold winds started coming down the slopes and i gave up all thoughts of sitting out with my flipflops on. I trudged inside the grim library with its jail like concrete walls, stayed in for another three hours and finally left the building at 9 at night. While on my way to the bus-stop I noticed that there had been a fair amount of rain - the first shower of Spring - the ground was giving off a nice damp pregnant smell, much like the smell of freshly cut grass, there was an air of hopeful inactivity, something would begin to get to work but had not started as yet, I could not quite make out what it was. I boarded the bus still pondering what it could be. It was when I got down at the usual Baldwin stop and started walking towards home that I noticed it or should I say them. Baldwin is a long street with absolutely no obstructions so the wind blows straight at your face. The only respite is if you bow your head in absolute obeyance to the winds wish and walk with your eyes looking at the pavement.

Thats when I noticed them. I had totally forgotten about this incident, but it had been the same last spring also, with the first shower they came out in a burst of activity from their dank dark homes to make the soil breathe again - the earthworms - but what i saw on the pavement was not a picture of regeneration but of death - with the first drops of moisture reaching there tunnelled homes the earthworms come out, they dig up soil and you can see the squiggles of soil where they have dug through it. Its probably the best thing for the soil, to have all the nutrients in it shifted and made available for the dormant seeds to grow from. ANd yet in their over zealous attempt they wiggle out too much and end up on the hard damp concrete pavement where no amount of their attempts can help in digging holes and thus they lie their exposed to the rain, without shelter untill they die. When the shower has ended if its still daylight the birds come out and have a royal feast, coz this is not an isolated event the pavements are seriously littered with thousands of carcasses, if i may call them. If on the other hand it happens at night like that day, then wayfarers like me have to perform an intricate ballet over the bodies to reach home. I dont know if anybody else has noticed this phenomenon but i am extremely aware of it because i hate earthworms(at least to look at) they are wriggly and slimy like snakes and on top of that they are so small i always feel they are gonna climb up my feet, especially that day with filpflops on , i must have reigned all possible curses on the critters for being on my path. Believe me when I say this that I do not have even an ounce of sympathy for the little critters but something that day made me think of these lines from T.S.Eliot:

APRIL is the cruellest month, breeding
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memory and desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain.
Winter kept us warm, covering	5
Earth in forgetful snow, feeding
A little life with dried tubers.