Spring is Near (Days Like This)

Days like this...
When Mother Nature is such a trickster,
When awful snowstorms fueled by 20 degree temperatures and harsh blustery winds are followed close behind by days like today, where it's sunny, 75 degrees, and not a cloud in the sky....

Days like this reminds me of when I was a child, where the sudden warmth turns the snow and ice into a nasty slush.  I remember thinking that if the slush was clean, I could mix it with my favorite Kool-aide  flavor

But my little feet and toes were frozen.
I couldn't even feel them through my cheap shoes.
Slish-slosh, slish-slosh I go, as Mama drags me along.
We were hurrying for the bus, but all of a sudden we stopped, missing our bus.
Mama pointed at something.
I looked down, and there it was...
A beautiful daisy, standing tall and strong,

Pushing up, gazing at the sun from the slush ground.
I reached down and plucked it up with my tiny fingers.
"Spring is near," Mama said.
"No Mama," I said. "Spring is here. Mama, Spring is here."

She knelt down and gently took the flower from my hand, and she placed it in one of my afro puffs.  I remember the sun shining warm upon my face that day as we waited in line for the next city bus. The lady behind us said "It's gonna be a hot day! Spring sho' nuff near."

My Mama corrected her with words I'd spoken only a few moments ago...
"No, spring is here, Ma'am. Spring  is here."

From Workplace Creative Writing Group, Washington DC, March 17, 2015. Writing Prompt: Write a poem about Spring; writing time: 15 minutes.