Leafless

The starkness of an east coast winter is startling to a northwest girl like myself. I remember similar images from my time in Vermont. After a few weeks of bright and stunning foliage it all falls off, leaving us with a skeletal view of the mountains. Hardly any evergreens to add lushness to the landscape. Bald giants line the hillsides and make one wonder if they'll ever be full again. Almost a cemetery for the dead leaves that once were.
February is a bleak month, full of a longing that has been building up since November. A restlessness nudges itself into our winter slumber. We long for Spring's provocative flirtations, full of eager buds and primary colored blossoms. Then we will begin to awake. Our eyes will be treated with a vision of leaves we have almost forgotten. Ripe and born again, flaunting blossoms and turning heads.
I am ready.