April Showers in Washington, D.C. (CTG)

The shower peppers my office window;
raindrops slant across glass. Below,
12th Street's silver as pedestrians labor

with umbrellas; headlighted cabs sail
past, windshield wipers awash. I woke
to thundercrashes; yesterday's balmly,

summery sun swilled away, and I fret
for the fragile cherry blossoms round
the Tidal Basin: Kwanzan, Usuzumi,
Yoshino, Akebono, Takesimensis. . .

Christopher T. George

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5065/...45eccc1c_o.jpg

Japanese Cherry Blossoms, Tidal Basin, Washington, D.C.

The names at the end of the poem are the different
varieties of cherry trees that grow round the Tidal Basin.
The original cherry trees were a gift from the people
of Japan to the people of the United States in 1912.
See http://www.nps.gov/cherry/index.htm