APRIL APPARITION  

These willows spill 

their budded yellow tassels

like a girl her too beautiful braids

almost brushing, but not quite,

the glass black surface of a pond

which shimmers in anticipation.

As gooseflesh breaks from flesh

before the touch.

Richard Schiffman has had work appear in North American Review, Southern Poetry Review, 32 Poems, Poetry East, Christian Science Monitor, The New York Times, and many other journals. His poetry collection, What the Dust Doesn’t Know, is forthcoming from Salmon Press.