How Do They Know?

by Jon Richards

All winter the tulips sleep so sound

Snug in their beds deep underground.

How do they know? Who tells them when

The earth is warm and it’s spring again?

It could be the rain as it trickles down deep

And freshens their roots and wakes them from sleep.

Perhaps it’s the sun that some days, like as not,

Makes their coverlet uncomfortably hot.

Do they hear the birds as they chatter and sing

And chirp about nesting and blue skies and spring?

Someone must tell them in time for the show,

Because springtime is tuliptime,

And they always know.

Illustrated by Virginia Sargent