Dolores DeLuise

You Taught Me the Third Week in April, Mama

“Sweetheart . . . Sweetheart . . . Sweetheart,” *

There’s a week in spring,

I never marked the date,

When blossoms fall

As Houseman’s do

Just like the snow from Springtime trees

With the heroine in death, at peace.

Blossoms of eternity

Falling in a fantasy

But I never could say when.

I looked for trees along the way

I tried, myself, to find what time

What week were they—in April, May?

I never found them on my own.

But you taught me when they blossomed, Mama,

That week.

That week when peace first came to you.

*Taken from the thirties movie Springtime, starring Jeannette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy, in which they sing the sentimental “Sweetheart,” my mother’s favorite movie.