for Kevin, best neph, who is 33 today

This is the springing forward,
the first of 240 days to make
more use of daylight from

the second Sunday in March
to the first Sunday in November.
The Canadians started it in 1908,

nothing to do with farmers or
the trajectory of our nearest star,
except that humans have long wanted

to harness more of what shines
upon us—much as the demigod Maui
lassoed the sun to slow its progress

across the sky to allow his mother’s
kapa cloths of pounded bark
more time to dry. We all want more

time in the sun to make hay while
it shines, make love, make do, make
waves, make light of so much dark,

especially as our half of the earth
starts to warm like an egg sunny side
up in a pan. Longing for winter to

catapult us into spring, we mortals
imagine that we can nudge the season
by turning clock hands forward,

as we catch our collective breath,
open a door, fling wide a window,
welcome the warmth of that

trickster sun once again.