January Song

JANUARY SONG

The rain arrived, the grass is high,
Green armies raising overnight
Their spears to eat the sun and seed
And conquer all the space around.

The sky is cloud-patched and the air
Sits heavy with day’s humid heat
And stillness brings a visitation
Of flies upon their summer wings.

The pheasant coucal’s mating call
Whoop-whoops through drifting afternoon
With faintest smell of maybe rain-
Then all around cicadas drum.

The god with his two faces looks
To past and future standing now-
The Janus of the month whose mind
Would gaze through these warm-dreaming days.

The new year dawns in summer heat
With holidays’ up-springing green.
My mind is not so god-like keen
And struggles with my purposes.

Still days shall rise. I try to set
Some course for future hours to be
And once more trim that frail craft hope
To sail upon that endless sea.