Passing Afternoon

There are times that walk from you like some passing afternoon
Summer warmed the open window of her honeymoon
And she chose a yard to burn but the ground remembers her
Wooden spoons  her children stir her Bougainvillea blooms
There are things that drift away like our endless  numbered days
Autumn blew the quilt right off the perfect bed she made
And she's chosen to believe in the hymns her mother sings
Sunday pulls its children from the piles of fallen leaves
There are sailing ships that pass all our bodies in the grass
Springtime calls her children 'till she let's them go at last
And she's chosen where to be  though she's lost her wedding ring
Somewhere near her misplaced jar of Bougainvillea seeds
There are things we can't recall  blind as night that finds us all
Winter tucks her children in  her fragile china dolls
But my hands remember hers  rolling 'round the shaded ferns
Naked arms  her secrets still like songs I'd never learned
There are names across the sea  only now I do believe
Sometimes  with the windows closed  she'll sit and think of me
But she'll mend his tattered clothes and they'll kiss as if they know
A baby sleeps in all our bones  so scared to be alone