I cannot make
the flowers bloom
any faster
than they are,
but I can
right now
bend
my knees
beside the barren
lilac bush
and notice
how it, too,
is beautiful,
all spindle and gnarl,
its branches not
too small, too big,
can choose
to praise
those tight,
gray fists of buds
for being so tight,
so gray.
Those buds as fists — nice. Two lines to consider vaporizing: line 4, “than they are” and line 6, “right now.” Then just wait for the lilacs to bloom!
Love your word choice of, spindle. Evocative of spinning wheels and the like, thereby, also, evoking images/notions of arid spareness and also bringing together of a thread from “gnarl.”