Elizabeth C Garcia

1 to come into being by growth, as from a seed, as the hosta’s green flags promising the end of winter’s penury, or the grace of this green empery. As acanthus shoots, or campus shooters, as in I stuck my head out of the window this morning and spring kissed me bang in the face. As a balloon, as in just spring, the goat-footed balloon man is whistling Dixie. 2 to issue forth suddenly as water, or as Executive Orders renaming bodies of water America. As pink blossoms from the redbuds, flaunting their promises, their promiscuity. Also, as uterine blood from a woman sent home from the ER, the redness of little leaves opening stickily. As raw sewage from the clay when it rains in rural Alabama’s Black Belt, or as in reversals of civil rights settlements. See also: I’ve been waiting long for a spring song. As in currency, as the sound of silver coins spinning from the underbrush, or as in the spring’s invisible law returns. 3 to be suddenly released from a coiled or constrained position, as landmines, or bullets, as in I stuck my head out of the window this morning and spring kissed me bang in the face. 4 to have as one’s birth or lineage, as in, do you spring from something white? Something red or blue? Something that speaks English? As in, to spring from a common taproot, as in an elder, a sister or brother. As in, am I my brother’s keeper? 5 to explode as a mine, or a dream deferred, or a dreamer deferred, sent back to her country with landmines, or bullets. As in I stuck my head out of the window this morning and spring kissed me bang in the face. As parade music, as April, the idiot babbling and strewing flowers under the boots. 6 to bend by force, or force in by bending, as deported immigrants lined up in a prison like one centipede, its segments like a hundred coins, like rosary beads. As in a nest, as in for every bird a nest, some little wren goes seeking round. As in any made thing, as in how can you be alive, you growths of spring? 7 to become bent or warped as boards, as 250-year-old tenets, as the body of a god on his wooden cross, bodies loaded onto trucks, bodies bent double under the boots. 8 to stretch or bend beyond its elastic tolerance, as in, is there anything, America, that can stretch you beyond your elastic tolerance? 9 to start or rise from cover, as a pheasant, woodcock, or masked man who grabs a hungry girl on her way to Iftar. As in, the tiger springs in the new year, us he devours. As the bluebird, just now nesting again, this close to devastation. Or like the parrot imitating spring, the parrot imitating spring, the parrot imitating spring. As the goldfinch from the bush, as in nature’s first green is gold, or like the new Gold Card you can have for just $5 million. So you, too, can be an American.