EQUINOCTIAL

The tropical sky is neat, conservative,
orderly. Noonday suns throughout the year
Are so nearly overhead, the days appear
To hardly ever vary in length. And if

We want a sign of the season’s changing, no
Long, languorous summer evenings nor
A winter’s early-rising pole star
Will remind us what the Temperate zones know–

That variation can be a goad to men.
The tropics don’t encourage mavericks.
Every night the sun goes down at six,
And at six In the morning it rises up again.

No scope for daylight saving on the clocks
Where folks enjoy eternal equinox!

(27, June 21, 1992)