Death of the Daffodils

Last year's daffodils greeted spring with laughter, waving their bright heads at dark-eyed juncos who paused at the fountain on their journey north. This year, we waited, watched their appearance in jubilation. Yet today, dawn rain poured, gave weight to their blossoms, bowed them to earth in surrender. Sleet mingled with the rain and ushered in heavy snow. As daylight faded, the daffodils, mounded under white, became merely a part of the dark, as though their long winter sleep didn't count.