My Lucky Day

What good luck! See?
There is one spring blossom
floating in my cup of tea. 

Oh, you say,
you have one, too.
They are as simple and as common
as a day in spring.

But, I say,
this blossom floated down
and landed in my cup
to save me from despair,
to stop the unintended tears. 

The world’s about to end
(I read it in the New York Times).
There may be no more snows
melting from the mountains after winter,
no streams for swimming fish and swimming children, no more songbirds left to sing. 

Still I am with you now.
I’m here today
and amidst the fray,
amidst the loss, amidst the sadness.
I have the comfort of a cup of tea and you.
And here we are together celebrating spring.
Overnight it seems
bright blooms reappeared
from what were sad, gray winter limbs
the day before.
Birds sang and life reemerged.
I also found a blossom in my cup of tea.
I think I won the cosmic lottery.

When I have gone and you have gone
or we have gone
we will have been a part of life,
a part of this.
As we are now
like blossoms in the spring
we will always be.
Now is forever
(I read it in the leaves of tea).
So, will you have another cup of tea with me?
And if you find a blossom in your cup,
will you dance and shout,
“Hooray! Hooray!
It is my lucky day!
Hooray! Hooray!” 

- Robin Lampman

at Maker Park Staten Island