Mary Ricketson

Mary Ricketson is a Licensed Clinical Mental Health Counselor and a published Poet. Mary serves survivors of trauma, people with mood or anxiety disorders, grief, and attention problems, and writes a monthly newspaper column, Woman to Woman. With a special interest in women’s issues. She was a founding member of the local shelter for abused women and is listed in Who’s Who in American Women.

Mid-March

Surprise is the rule when spring makes promises

and promises are made to break.

Birds call to their mates, fly to the feeder,

sing loud while the air is warm.

Daffodils, bursts of sun on the ground,

took a beating already in days of pounding rain.

Bradford pear blooms beam like a bride in white,

weeping cherries smile pink with today’s first flower.

Forsythia already struts yellow bells, wild on tangled spires.

The lame mule stands warm and comfy in his lean to shed.

Tonight’s deep freeze and snow will change it all.

— Mary Ricketson