<html aria-label="message body"><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=us-ascii"></head><body style="overflow-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;"><div dir="auto" style="overflow-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;"><div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 16px;"><font size="5" style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="color: rgb(14, 18, 24);">The Things That Return</span><b><o:p></o:p></b></font></div><div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 16px;"><font size="5" style="font-size: 22px;"> <o:p></o:p></font></div><div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 16px;"><span style="color: rgb(14, 18, 24);"><font size="5" style="font-size: 22px;">I've been down this road a time or two. I've seen the green<o:p></o:p></font></span></div><div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 16px;"><span style="color: rgb(14, 18, 24);"><font size="5" style="font-size: 22px;">grass and the rabbits running and the deer<o:p></o:p></font></span></div><div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 16px;"><span style="color: rgb(14, 18, 24);"><font size="5" style="font-size: 22px;">coming down from the hills to eat the last of the garden's harvest.<o:p></o:p></font></span></div><div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 16px;"><span style="color: rgb(14, 18, 24);"><font size="5" style="font-size: 22px;">I've trained my eyes to catch the gold of sunset,<o:p></o:p></font></span></div><div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 16px;"><span style="color: rgb(14, 18, 24);"><font size="5" style="font-size: 22px;">the silver moon rising, (the silver moon) rising over dry grass<o:p></o:p></font></span></div><div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 16px;"><span style="color: rgb(14, 18, 24);"><font size="5" style="font-size: 22px;">the dry grasses and the leaves that swirl in gusts of surprise<o:p></o:p></font></span></div><div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 16px;"><span style="color: rgb(14, 18, 24);"><font size="5" style="font-size: 22px;">when the tired stars open their eyes wide and dream in 4/4 time.<o:p></o:p></font></span></div><div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 16px;"><span style="color: rgb(14, 18, 24);"><font size="5" style="font-size: 22px;">I've seen the frost slip in without so much as a peep<o:p></o:p></font></span></div><div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 16px;"><span style="color: rgb(14, 18, 24);"><font size="5" style="font-size: 22px;">and leave us wondering where the warm days have fled,<o:p></o:p></font></span></div><div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 16px;"><span style="color: rgb(14, 18, 24);"><font size="5" style="font-size: 22px;">where the warm nights have hunkered down beneath the earth.<o:p></o:p></font></span></div><div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 16px;"><span style="color: rgb(14, 18, 24);"><font size="5" style="font-size: 22px;">Beneath the earth to wait out another winter.<o:p></o:p></font></span></div><div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 16px;"><span style="color: rgb(14, 18, 24);"><font size="5" style="font-size: 22px;">I have closed my eyes and wondered too where the days have gone,<o:p></o:p></font></span></div><div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 16px;"><span style="color: rgb(14, 18, 24);"><font size="5" style="font-size: 22px;">how the days and the nights and the stars of my dreams have blinked out<o:p></o:p></font></span></div><div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 16px;"><span style="color: rgb(14, 18, 24);"><font size="5" style="font-size: 22px;">and left me standing here before that night as black<o:p></o:p></font></span></div><div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 16px;"><span style="color: rgb(14, 18, 24);"><font size="5" style="font-size: 22px;">as the waiting shadow of death - inscrutable as my lover's eyes<o:p></o:p></font></span></div><div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 16px;"><span style="color: rgb(14, 18, 24);"><font size="5" style="font-size: 22px;">the day he said he needed to leave because it was just too hard.<o:p></o:p></font></span></div><div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 16px;"><span style="color: rgb(14, 18, 24);"><font size="5" style="font-size: 22px;">I've waited thinking everything comes around, everything<o:p></o:p></font></span></div><div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 16px;"><span style="color: rgb(14, 18, 24);"><font size="5" style="font-size: 22px;">revolves like the sun and the moon and the tiny round seeds<o:p></o:p></font></span></div><div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 16px;"><span style="color: rgb(14, 18, 24);"><font size="5" style="font-size: 22px;">of the dandelion that rise each spring in my morning garden.<o:p></o:p></font></span></div><div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 16px;"><span style="color: rgb(14, 18, 24);"><font size="5" style="font-size: 22px;">But some things go and never come back.<o:p></o:p></font></span></div><div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 16px;"><span style="color: rgb(14, 18, 24);"><font size="5" style="font-size: 22px;">My darling children's rooms stand empty still.<o:p></o:p></font></span></div><div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 16px;"><span style="color: rgb(14, 18, 24);"><font size="5" style="font-size: 22px;">Empty of them and their yarn tied braids and their lithe<o:p></o:p></font></span></div><div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 16px;"><span style="color: rgb(14, 18, 24);"><font size="5" style="font-size: 22px;">moon spirit bodies shining in their beds at midnight.<o:p></o:p></font></span></div><div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 16px;"><span style="color: rgb(14, 18, 24);"><font size="5" style="font-size: 22px;">And no turnings of the moon's bright face smiling through<o:p></o:p></font></span></div><div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 16px;"><span style="color: rgb(14, 18, 24);"><font size="5" style="font-size: 22px;">veiled windows bring back the tiny fingers and toes,<o:p></o:p></font></span></div><div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 16px;"><span style="color: rgb(14, 18, 24);"><font size="5" style="font-size: 22px;">the endless songs of honeyed childhood soprano.<o:p></o:p></font></span></div><div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 16px;"><span style="color: rgb(14, 18, 24);"><font size="5" style="font-size: 22px;">My love has not returned, not come round through the eternal<o:p></o:p></font></span></div><div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 16px;"><span style="color: rgb(14, 18, 24);"><font size="5" style="font-size: 22px;">revolving door of love's spring scent blossoming pink on cherry boughs.<o:p></o:p></font></span></div><div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 16px;"><span style="color: rgb(14, 18, 24);"><font size="5" style="font-size: 22px;">The things that return it seems are the truths that ring round our cabin doors<o:p></o:p></font></span></div><div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 16px;"><span style="color: rgb(14, 18, 24);"><font size="5" style="font-size: 22px;">ring round our frost-pained windows with each new season of life.<o:p></o:p></font></span></div><div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 16px;"><span style="color: rgb(14, 18, 24);"><font size="5" style="font-size: 22px;">Not the personal grasping for yesterday's love that lies darkening<o:p></o:p></font></span></div><div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 16px;"><span style="color: rgb(14, 18, 24);"><font size="5" style="font-size: 22px;">the fallen leaf, but fresh new petals, a different shade of rose,<o:p></o:p></font></span></div><div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 16px;"><span style="color: rgb(14, 18, 24);"><font size="5" style="font-size: 22px;">a silver hand opening that leads fall toward winter -<o:p></o:p></font></span></div><div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 16px;"><span style="color: rgb(14, 18, 24);"><font size="5" style="font-size: 22px;">that sometimes startles with its clarity as the crisp cold descends,<o:p></o:p></font></span></div><div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 16px;"><span style="color: rgb(14, 18, 24);"><font size="5" style="font-size: 22px;">as the bright leaves flee before it toward their dark beds.<o:p></o:p></font></span></div><div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 16px;"><font size="5" style="font-size: 22px;"> <o:p></o:p></font></div><div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 16px;"><span style="color: rgb(14, 18, 24);"><font size="5" style="font-size: 22px;"> - Diane LaRae Bodach</font></span></div></div></body></html>