February 29th

You could hear the marble crack, the sound like a rifle shot,
I crouched cold in my steps behind an oak, looking over a railing top
Nothing seemed amiss, up or down the walk,
Must have been a branch, trees sometimes do talk

I stood up to peek about, and heard the snap again
This time I kept my wits, this time I saw one statue bend
Bend! Statues don’t bend! Well, this one did, plain as day!
You have to live on the wild side, to see a statue play

The marble commenced morphing, from mottled white, to pink skin,
Eyes of blue , a billowy white shirt, who would triumph marble or him
The change now complete, he dropped from pedestal to walk
Stood straight, and wiggled his toes—for me, time had abruptly stopped

Striding across the park like grass, held his hands high for a figure,
Still and white and serene, It turned to she, and jumped secure
man and woman, in love, she in his arms, a laugh and a smile,
They clung to each other, for a long, long while

Then walking about hand in hand, his eyes seemed locked to hers,
As if they’d never take each other all in, a mysterious curse
Modestly, in my feeble attempt, to let them be for the hours
I looked away, gave them time, to bend and share the flowers

Finally, they returned, he put her on her stand
Slowly, he watched her return to her marble state again
With tears streaming, down his aqualine nose
He climbed his pedestal, and assume his former pose

He looked at me as if to explain somehow, one last time,
seeing a natural unspoken question in my eye
“To embrace, to kiss, to hold, to find,
We only get a few hours of, one day only, February 29th”