<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=us-ascii"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div dir="auto" style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class=""><span style="color: rgb(12, 18, 25);" class="">The Things That Return</span></div><p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class=""> </p><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(12, 18, 25);" class="">I've been down this road a time or two. I've seen the green</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(12, 18, 25);" class="">grass the green grass and the rabbits running and the deer</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(12, 18, 25);" class="">coming down from the hills to eat the last of the garden's harvest.</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(12, 18, 25);" class="">I've trained my eyes to catch the gold of sunset,</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(12, 18, 25);" class="">the silver moon rising, (the silver moon) rising over dry grass</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(12, 18, 25);" class="">the dry grasses and the leaves that swirl in gusts of surprise</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(12, 18, 25);" class="">when the tired stars open their eyes wide and dream in 4/4 time.</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(12, 18, 25);" class="">I've seen the frost slip in without so much as a peep</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(12, 18, 25);" class="">and leave us wondering where the warm days have fled,</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(12, 18, 25);" class="">where the warm nights have hunkered down beneath the earth.</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(12, 18, 25);" class="">Beneath the earth to wait out another winter.</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(12, 18, 25);" class="">I have closed my eyes and wondered too where the days have gone,</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(12, 18, 25);" class="">how the days and the nights and the stars of my dreams have blinked out</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(12, 18, 25);" class="">and left me standing here before that night as black</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(12, 18, 25);" class="">as the waiting shadow of death - inscrutable as my lover's eyes</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(12, 18, 25);" class="">the day he said he needed to leave because it was just too hard.</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(12, 18, 25);" class="">I've waited thinking everything comes around, everything</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(12, 18, 25);" class="">revolves like the sun and the moon and the tiny round seeds</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(12, 18, 25);" class="">of the dandelion that rise each spring in my morning garden.</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(12, 18, 25);" class="">But some things go and never come back.</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(12, 18, 25);" class="">My darling children's rooms stand empty still.</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(12, 18, 25);" class="">Empty of them and their yarn tied braids and their lithe</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(12, 18, 25);" class="">moon spirit bodies shining in their beds at midnight.</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(12, 18, 25);" class="">And no turnings of the moon's bright face smiling through</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(12, 18, 25);" class="">veiled windows bring back the tiny fingers and toes,</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(12, 18, 25);" class="">the endless songs of honeyed childhood soprano.</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(12, 18, 25);" class="">My love has not returned, not come round through the eternal</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(12, 18, 25);" class="">revolving door of love's spring scent blossoming pink on cherry boughs.</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(12, 18, 25);" class="">The things that return it seems are the truths that ring round our cabin doors</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(12, 18, 25);" class="">ring round our frost-pained windows with each new season of life.</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(12, 18, 25);" class="">Not the personal grasping for yesterday's love that lies darkening</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(12, 18, 25);" class="">the fallen leaf, but fresh new petals, a different shade of rose,</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(12, 18, 25);" class="">a silver hand opening that leads fall toward winter -</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(12, 18, 25);" class="">that sometimes startles with its clarity as the crisp cold descends,</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(12, 18, 25);" class="">as the bright leaves flee before it toward their dark beds.</div><p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class=""> </p><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(12, 18, 25);" class=""><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>- Diane LaRae Bodach</div></div></body></html>