Beginnings and Endings

Each day I close my weary eyes
The end of hours passed and tried
Open them whence day appears
Continue this for years and years.

Each breath I take it starts as deep
Exhaled unconscious but consciously free
Another comes with no thought or care
A beginning, too, with sweet ending air.

And as life continues the beginnings fuse
With endings always like a faithful muse
No worries kept or frets to fail
The beginnings are the endings tale.

I watch the day as it comes and goes
I watch the too short life of the rose
I see you come to fill my days
Then vanish, ending what once was safe.

I feel the pain of your departure most
For the beginning was what I treasured so
Now beginning is my task again
And your ending began this exhausting plan.

Yet to begin again sans an ending sure
Delays the courage, avoids the lure
The heart beats surely once proved to mend
And I turn to begin what I know shall soon end.

3/26/08