The Circle Poem by jim hogg

It's been a while since I took my knife
And carved our little truth
On that old beech tree by the railway line
Before we left the school

The quirks of fate beat us to the gate
And you wed someone else
In the church where dreams softly melt away
I vowed I'd ring the bells

And in and out through the years I swerved
While nothing stayed the same
Now the counting shows that I served myself
and nothing's really changed

I'd loved and left love so many times
I thought that it had gone
And the autumn leaves suited me just fine
With winter coming on

Then suddenly out of nowhere came
A signal of a kind
Just a flick'ring spark I mistook for flames
That flared up in my mind

And as I scan all the damage done
As autumn starts to fade
There's a warning there in the falling sun
A price that must be paid

And so I stopped by yon beech to carve
Some words I'd never dared
When I knew that I'd loved enough at last
And now the circle's squared

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