Stay

By Janet Kvammen

Then leaf subsides to leaf.      

So Eden sank to grief,                

So dawn goes down to day.

Nothing gold can stay.

        “Nothing Gold Can Stay” — Robert Frost

Seasons unfurl here.

I imagine it

another way.

We walk along Quayside.

So days come and they go.

The setting sun in relief.

Together we steal moments,

lost in nature's infinities.

Time our only thief.

Then leaf subsides to leaf.

Beautiful as a bud,

ever-flitting on the vine.

Clouds circle above,

change their only constant.

Each no less remarkable,  

a watercolour by O'Keeffe —

beauty gone in a single breath.

Across the river, slender Poplars bear witness.

Faith lost to disbelief.

So Eden sank to grief.

But still 

a new paradise

goldens the water. Fall 

will spring again, and tugboats will 

crackle through winter ice.

Today dreams are faraway,

holding tight to rainbows.

We revel in purple tulips. 

Heart to heart, the prophet's play.

So dawn goes down to day.

Only with darkness 

can we truly see. 

So that the light shines brighter.

We rise,

green with hope—

a signal to the break of day.

Slowly we sink into the inevitable night.

I can't imagine 

having it any other way.

Nothing gold can stay.