Everything Changes

Look about the world to find the measure
of its music.
All around you there is change.
The body sleeps, then wakes.
The chrysanthemum blooms, then dies.
The wind whips hot, then catches ice.
A woman is alone, then in labor.
The seasons pass, then the rains come
and go,
and it is dry once again.

The pretty music of the heart
shoulders change.
The passage of time can take on just
that sort of miracle.
The depth of our nation, as one whole
body, under God, finds new life in
the grand avenues of change.
Through the years, survival paints us
a masterpiece of how we have changed
and become new, more alive.