Ethereal Inevitable

The sun crawls from its hiding place

To ether ladders scrawled in space

Where vapor-thin politeness graces,

Chases morning-tide

…and where dusk-velvet vesper dealt

Blue shadows, motionless they melt

Into nothing, seamless and svelte

As night and day’s divide

How is it, in the gathering

Of moments we are emptying

Yet all the while replenishing

With future-font, the past?

…your eyes tell me what words cannot

Propriety mutes un-spelled thought

We know only what Time has taught

Its friendship unabashed

The hierarchy of tick and tock

Scatters sweet summer to the walk

In petals, though we beg and balk

Days fill thought-gaze with years

…something akin to grief, I guess

Defends hope’s sudden helplessness

Where laughter yields to loneliness

As daylight disappears

© Janet Martin