Whistler's Daughter, by William Greenway

Arrangement in Grey and Black No. 1 (Whistler's Mother), by James McNeill Whistler (USA). 1871.

Whistler’s Daughter
 
She picked it up at preschool
and it fits perfectly her foldable tongue,
inherited from some other oddball
down the family tree. 
It’s like living in a house of birds
who have all the notes, but shun
any particular order.
This chorale of  pink and purple crocus
and yellow daffodil warblings
and flutings, though, paint
this first day of spring, 
even if each window’s still
an arrangement in grey and black.
 
William Greenway
 
William Greenway’s newest collection, Everything We Bring, All We Leave Behind, is forthcoming from Main Street Rag Press. HisSelected Poems was the winner of the 2014 FutureCycle Press Poetry Book of the Year Award.  Both his tenth and eleventh collections won Ohio Poetry Book of the Year Awards. He has published in Poetry, American Poetry Review, Georgia Review, Southern Review, Poetry Northwest, Shenandoah, and Prairie Schooner.  He’s Distinguished Professor Emeritus of English at Youngstown State University, but lives now in Ephrata, PA.