perhaps spring is here

Extra poem time! This poem is for April 17, which was the other day I missed this month. I actually had this poem on my spreadsheet the whole time, but between missing a couple of days and moving some things around, it ended up getting bumped off, and I love it, so I'm posting it now. There are no rules to National Poetry Month.

Even though it’s May & the ice cream truck
parked outside my apartment is somehow certain,
I have a hard time believing winter is somehow,
all of a sudden, over — the worst one of my life,
the woman at the bank tells me. Though I’d like to be,
it’s impossible to be prepared for everything.
Even the mundane hum of my phone catches me
off guard today. Every voice that says my name
is a voice I don’t think I could possibly leave
(it’s unfair to not ask for the things you need)
even though I think about it often, even though
leaving is a train headed somewhere I’d probably hate.
Crossing Lyndale to meet a friend for coffee
I have to maneuver around a hearse that pulled too far
into the crosswalk. It’s empty. Perhaps spring is here.
Perhaps it will all be worth it. Even though I knew
even then it was worth it, staying, I mean.
Even now, there is someone, somehow, waiting for me.

—Hieu Minh Nguyen, "Uptown, Minneapolis, Minnesota," Poetry, 2018.