Passage

The things that we thought would always stay


Will find their way into the Earth someday.

And the things that we thought were gone for good

Will find their way back, as perhaps they should.



The lifelong love that we thought we found

We've long since lain in a hole in the ground,

And the feelings we tried so hard to forget

Are churning their way to the surface yet.



The cold granite prism that decades ago

Someone set on that tomb now lies in the snow

Of the Hillsboro lawn, having jumped from its ledge

While the turf is beginning to cover the edge.



And some force underneath that catalpa tree

Has tilled up the ground and been set free

exposing the roots and shifting the place

Of the slabs that had lain in a row at its base.



Nobody leaves, and nobody stays,

And so it will be till the end of days.

What we thought had died is with us still,

And our undying love, too, someday will.