Autumn

Driven through by her own sword

Summer died last night, alone

Even the ghosts huddled up for warmth

Autumn has come to my hometown

Friendly voices, dead and gone,

Singing, Star of the country down

Even the ghosts help raise the barn

Here, now, in my hometown

When, out of the massing that bodes and bides in the cold west

Flew a waxwing, who froze and died against my breast

And all the while, rain, like a weed in the tide

Swans and lists, down on the gossiping lawns

Saying tsk tsk tsk

I may have changed, it's hard to gauge

Time won't account for how I’ve aged

Would I could tie your lying tongue

Who says that leaving keeps you young

I have got no control

Over my heart, over my mind

Over the hills, the rainclouds roll

I'll winter here, wait for a sign

To cast myself out, over the water

Riven like a wishbone

You'd hardly guess

I was my own mother's daughter

I ain't naturally given to roam

And I lay low, when I return

And I move like a gurney

Whose wheels are squeaking

Alone, here in my home

And I laugh when you speak of my pleasure-seeking

Among the tall pines, along the lay-lines

Here, where the loon keens

There, where the moon leans

There, where I know my violent love lays

Down in a row of silent, dove-gray days

Here, in a row of silent, dove-gray days

Wherever I go, I am snowbound

By thoughts of him whom I would shun

I loved them all, one by one

Cannot gain ground, cannot outrun

But time marches along

You can't always stick around

But, when the final count is done

I will be in my hometown

I will be in my hometown