Equinox

September.  I once stayed with you because
I thought I could distinguish right from wrong:
The kids were growing up, you had just lost
Your job and all your confidence was down;
     Yet you hated me and took it out on me
     For all that was and all that couldn’t be,
And as I watched the shades of summer turn
I knew I couldn’t leave you on your own.

A dozen seasons later, your new job
Is thriving and your confidence is strong,
The kids are grown up more and anymore
You’ll be all right.  You don’t need me around.
     I turn to watch the sunlight slip away
     And see the time diminish every day  
And still I stay with you, but now because
I dread the thought of being left alone.

The equinox is fleeting, but I try
To hold on to its balance for as long
As tilting worlds allow; we lean away
From warmth and I can feel the harder ground
     Of colder days to come, and even now
     I know I should move on, or move somehow,
But as the autumn winds blow through the leaves
Of September my cold feet turn into stone.

I hope that there may never be an end
To anything, from dawn to dusk to dawn;
That fall is just a stop along the way
To winter; that beyond this we are bound
     Eventually to see another spring
     And then wherever time and fate will bring
Us, traveling together or apart
But never, through these autumn woods, alone.