These flowers are like the pleasures of the world.
—William Shakespeare, from “Cymbeline”

•••

It’s possible that Shakespeare came into the world
and left it on the same day 52 years later, though

no one knows for sure. Both are commemorated
on April 23, so on this day, some 410 years

after his death, pleased to see the first blooms
of cosmos standing tall in my front yard,

from the sidewalk I offer a small bouquet
of Will’s words to the newly blossomed—

“Now, my fair’st friend,
I would I had some flowers o’ the spring that might
Become your time of day; and yours, and yours”—

grateful for those that come now, for those that
will soon be gone, and for all the rest to come.

•••

The Shakespeare lines are from “The Winter’s Tale.”