Waiting and knowing

It's coming to me slowly that soon, the air will smell like grass again, the afternoon light will grow increasingly yellow and the daffodils will bloom along College Street. It will be spring, and it will be like no other New England spring I've known - a spring with no autumn to follow it. I will steal moments in hammocks and on warm benches, I will sit in the places where we can look in all directions and see only trees and old, old buildings. This spring, I will never close my eyes.