Poem for Rosh Hashanah

NEW YEAR.
poem by Ned Hayes

 

Rosh Hashanah comes
    this year
on a day of cool wind,

 

a breathtaking
portent of winter

 

taking the world, rude lover
   tossing
the sheets away.

 

in autumn
the sadness of all things

 

is greatest
   for now
the world was created.

 

the new fruit, shot through
with decay:

 

birthed in the same
   moment,
the racing seed
   and the worm.