days

as the sun goes down another day ends

it was a day like this that was my first
and like the one that’ll be last I guess

but today like yesterday just somewhere
in between
in the count of days that I will be here
looking for a way go thought to think

this day dying now was also the first
for someone new in the world and the last
for someone who today ran out of days

funny how one day can be so different
confusion for a crying baby
relief for an old man and hope for me

if life has chapters its pages are days
each one turning eastward toward the next

yesterdays gone and tomorrow not here
I can only rise again each morning
to scribble my way across this one day
til it quiets me with the red of sunset

and always the promise of returning

1967