Days Are Ending Sooner

Dark outside the window. Nothing
Much to it — the world spins and tilts
Smoothly and quite predictably.

It’s autumn in this hemisphere.
The darkness arrives earlier
Every evening and will awhile.

You may never see it lengthen
Again, but you’ve seen it enough
Times to know just how it will go.

It won’t need you; you won’t need it.
Someday the light will just come back,
But you’ll likely be gone. You hope

That spring brings rejuvenation
To the child your death abandoned.