February

February is here now and the days are getting lighter,
so those of us with SAD syndrome can feel a little brighter.
We’ve got rid of the worst months of our depressing winter gloom,
and now it’s time for us to see garden flowers start to bloom.

First have come our brave snowdrops out from under blanketing snow.
Nothing at all can stop their grim determination to grow. 
With any luck we’ll soon get a splash of yellow from our daffs.
They’ll be here before Feb’s over: not long now, I’ve done the maths.

Part way through the month, I’m told, it will be Chinese New Year:
another “Year of the black Snake” is twenty thirteen, I hear.
So I’ll wear my black feather boa when I go out that night,
and point my black china cobras on my shelf towards the light. 

We’ll have fun on Shrove Tuesday, as we’ll get to toss some pancakes,
and eat them with maple syrup, or whate’er our fancy takes.
Then it is Lent and there is something very wrong with that plan:
why does it fall after we’ve had Valentine’s chocs from our man?

Will I get a surprise card from someone that I hardly know
addressed to “the girl I met last month at the cinema show”?
It is still a mystery from whence last year came one like that,
so I wonder if I’ll find another this year on my mat. 

Piety, humility, wisdom and sincerity traits
they say come from people that are born on February days.
Symbols of February are amethyst and violet,
and as a purple loving person, I’ll go along with that.

And speaking of violets, I’ve got some just poking out
from the cracks in my patio, and wandering all about. 
February 1st! I’m getting more cheerful by the minute, 
the sun is shining here and I am glad I was out in it.