The Seasons and You

 Though we were overdue in spring,

my love, I was glad I had this summer with you,

and am content I got to see the changing

of the leaves, and will watch them

fall again, with you.

We have made great greenness

from the spring of our lives,

the shoots of a family, the legacy

of work, 

and there is no more than I could ever want

than our memories, 

our fig and vine,

you singing beside me

in the wilderness of our twilight

years,

and peanut butter ice cream.

The cold winds blow 

through the hollows

of my bones, that still make blood

cells red and white,

from long memory,

and if I enjoy you as the leaves do fall

and as the snow may fall, 

then I consider myself blessed

more than any man deserves,

though he stood on a mountain once and 

observed the whole world,  once.

Though the ears might 

fail and the eyes

fail to see, we still have more time,

you and me,

and nothing finer in my life

greets the dawn of my day

better than the light you are

and past this winter even still...

Falling Every Year

The man is falling again 

head first, 

in the pose of the Hanged Man in the Tarot. 

This is what I notice, because I do. 

Suffering is as unavoidable as rain, 

and death comes for all of us. 

Could it have been avoided? 

We don't avoid the falling every year, 

but I don't know that we have the lesson 

down to heart yet. 

The cards flip over: 

the tower reversed 

and this poor soul plummeting. 

A card presented to us until 

we nearly forget this was a man.