where we have been both sombre and perplexed
relieved in winter by the thoughts of light
in coming seasons knowing that the bright
hours that have passed will leave me no less vexed
than heavy cloud in this wintry context
of damp and rain and days that fade to night
with little notice nothing it seems is right
as we  engage to find out what comes next
this is the law by which our lives are bound
in lands both narrow and unseemly wide
to face the future with unsteady arms
in fainting hope of finding safer ground
not certain that there is a winning side
and listening for the end of all alarms