Sandra Lim

---

April

Showers overnight. Coffee on the desk,
Untasted, now cold.

The birds have been silent all morning.
But you still suppose

The world will bound toward you,
Opening its gardens and doors!

The pale, irregular blush of Winter Daphne
Spreads outside and upward.

You remember those times when passion takes
Hold, its thousand-mile scent

Going all through a body. Can you beat that.

You can see the flower starting up
In people,

First the stealth, then the dartingness,
All the while focused

On some complex task of its own

---

Sandra Lim

Sandra Lim is the author of two poetry books, Loveliest Grotesque and The Wilderness, chosen by Louise Glück for the Barnard Women Poets Prize. A new collection, The Curious Thing, will be published in the fall of 2021 by W.W. Norton. The recipient of a Literature Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, Lim lives in Cambridge, MA.