I used to live up North.

Way, way, way up north, as in Central Maine and Northern Idaho. And though I’m wicked happy to be back in Flor-i-dah, a little piece of my heart is still frozen in the snow, and I remember the long wait for spring.

“Wood Lot in April,” published in the March 2017 issue of Cleaver Magazine, is about the dark side of that longing. In my desperate searches for signs of spring, I often walked alone in the Unity College wood lot, on the lookout for trillium, unrolling fiddlehead ferns, and other early risers. And I was often disappointed when I found the land still in winter’s grip.

Cleaver won my heart with its “Thwack!” and its Ask June column. It’s one of the coolest online magazines around. Check ’em out.