WILLOW WEEP

It was two o’clock in the autumn afternoon

and he was waiting,

waiting.

The songthrushes tired of singing above him

and flew away. They left him.

He stayed there.

in the wind that grew louder and louder

in the branches of the rustling

weeping willow

up in the sky.

It was six o’clock in the autumn evening

and he was weeping,

weeping.

The stars twinkled and shivered in the dark sky.

They hid beyond the clouds above him

and he stayed there

in the night that felt darker and darker

through the crown of the lonely

lonely willow,

beside him.