Today when fall and summer meet

each other like old friends on the street

before they pass and go their way,

and our turning world brings chilly mornings,

warm afternoons and darkness comes

when it’s time to eat,

and leaves, still green, will soon be gold

and brown and maple red and the air

is sweet,

and the golden rods are everywhere,

and the potato bed is culled

into buckets to be stored

for the winter days ahead,

and I think about the seasons

I have known,

never sure how many more

I’ll know or reasons to ignore

what nature teaches,

and so I look up at the fading summer sky,

at the glorious slant of light that comes this time of year,

glad to have this day again and sigh

with a deep and happy breath that I am here

where I can stand and look the passing heavens in the eye

and chuckle at how precarious it all seems

spinning in this universe of stars

where everything is turning, even dreams

that come and go like clouds and seasons,

but today the only thing that matters is my beating heart

and the silence I love to hear,

and the breath that lets me say these words

of wonder and gratitude for one more year.