Seasons [revised 14 June 2010] Options

[Ephiny]

Seasons (revision)

The long evenings helped
to make sense of it in daylight.
Flowers hurt; night-scented
remnants from another life.

Orange and black; candlelight.
The day you walked unaided to the garden gate.
Flowers curled back to ground; we retreated indoors.
Glowing air; hot drinks; camped
around your bed, we talked in firelight.

Harshest since 1963.
The hospital drive through snow, each day, to you.
Frozen trees; branches gnarled in ice and shadow.
That sunlit Monday you stopped traffic,
strangers held my hands at the gate.
Lowered heads, foggy streets and silence.

First snowdrops.
Shadows lengthen.
Pale, intangible sunlight.


Original

Life in three seasons

Summer
The long evenings helped
to make sense of it in daylight.
Flowers hurt; night-scented
remnants from another life.

Autumn
Orange and black; candlelight.
The day you walked unaided to the garden gate.
Flowers curled back to ground; we retreated indoors.
Glowing air; hot drinks; camped
around your bed, we talked in firelight.

Winter
Hardest since 1963.
The hospital drive through snow, each day, to you.
Frozen trees; branches gnarled in ice and shadow.
That sunlit Monday you stopped traffic,
strangers held my hands at the gate.
Lowered heads, foggy streets and silence.

Spring
First snowdrops.
Shadows lengthen.
Pale, intangible sunlight.