Five years' decay

 Five years’ decay 

  dusty textbooks

  and angry mobs on TV

Giving in, getting loaded 

  and fat, wasting two 

  thousand noons in self-

  reproach, saluting the

  flag I once would have

  burned, just to resist 

  a tide I helped set

  in motion, silent as

  the moon on a summer

  night

Now Autumn is upon us, 

  open skies uncluttered

  by leaves, the bright

  November sun revealing 

  everything as it always was