Leaves Falling
A man may love a woman, and a woman love a man,
so take my hand in yours, though we have no path or plan,
that we may dance in springtime when the flowers bloom in cheer,
and spin a pirouette to defy the turning of the year.
Then after comes a summer, when we wear a splendid crown,
and then we weep in autumn when the leaves are falling down.
A love may be as pure as sky and burn with blazing light,
undoing every darkness and making day from night,
but we ourselves, like water, through our fingers slip away;
can our love be everlasting when we have no strength to stay?
Beginnings come to endings for all we love and know;
we weep while leaves are falling, then after, only snow.
So take my hand in dancing, for the time will swiftly run,
but we may love together for a while in hope and sun;
perhaps it will give smiles that endure to our recall
even as our tears well up as leaves begin to fall.