After the sunflowers
have dropped their pollen
and dropped their leaves
and hung their seeded heads
to dry, let me sit here
in the garden where
it is not quite yet all
dead, where the calendula
surge in orange bloom,
their seeds not yet
dark brittle moons, and if
I still think that I know
anything of how
things go, then
as the dark and cold
grow stronger, let me
sit a while longer,
and then a little more.