Spring is a Mannequin

Spring is a Mannequin
Originally uploaded by kafkas_undies.

Spotted. The first signs of Spring. Printemp's little green spikes caught red-handed. Apprehended while hiding beneath chlorophyll's cover and last year's mulch.

Despite its many talents, Spring does not have a gift for stealth. Instead, it has a gift for being caught wearing that trademark smile. Bright-eyed and facetious, it is a smile that taunts Winter's wickedness. It is a double dog dare smile begging to be taught a lesson. Green shoots tempt heaven's snowmaking machine. They threaten to turn blue skies and balmy breezes into runaway teenagers and deadbeat dads. On the lamb and in search of parking on Easy Street.

Green shoots are Spring's toes, freshly painted and testing the Sea's temperature before the big plunge.

The shoots climb toward a dying star, toward genetic mandates, toward death by bouquet. Within days, these burgeoning bulbs will be the season's It Girl. At least for a few weeks. They will wear last year's pant suit, just back from dry cleaning and winter hibernation. Within days, area housewives will have something else to Ooooh and Aaaah about and salesmen will regurgitate more seasonal clichés. They'll try to sound unrehearsed, natural. But they will sound like dead horses being flogged. Familiar.

Meanwhile, water coolers will roll their eyes. They're sick of tradition, having binged one too many times on all things Spring. These days, you'll find they've switched to an all beef diet and have given up clocks and calendars. They've even developed a fondness for salt. Guess it's fair to say office gossip will never be the same again.