Autumn

Dear Crickets, doomed to die,

Bless you, for so am I.

How bravely your song of Autumn

Accepts without remorse

The ordaining of Winter.

Hidden in the hearth,

faith of future generations

Beyond the snow, beyond death:

’Tis humble your chirrup

And full of courage

As we too might be

If we could but see

God beyond the horizon

Of our Autumnal glory

And decay.

— F.B. Sayre Jr.

(First published in the

Vineyard Gazette, November, 1984)