Awakening
By Heather Cole
She stirs from within winter’s duvet, coccooning her like a slumbering caterpillar. A ray of sunshine bathes her face in a warm golden glow.
She tries to rise, but winter pulls her back.
“Stay here, where it’s cosy,” he says, as he delivers an icy blast to the brave snowdrops, who had dared to seek the sun, pushing their leaves through the frosty crust of the earth.
She tussles with the layers, longing to see the lambs skipping and racing through the grassy fields.
Winter, desperate to cling on, creates a storm. Trees are uprooted, the fields temporarily flooded. Warmer days have never seemed so far away.
Then, at last, she breaks free, stretching and smiling, wriggling her toes as she walks in a carpet of daffodils. We hear her laughter in the returning birds, and know that Spring has awoken.