Like a Star

THIS year is like a star too near the dawn.
The light is sickly. Oceans hold their breath
before the birth they know to be a death.
Birds, O gather early.

Those who love each other walk a lawn
of broken glass. The artificial lake
that holds their islands is about to break.
Birds, O gather early.

Before the star falls we shall be afire
close to the snow and closer to the ice
where nothing and no one ever melts twice.
Birds, O gather early.

And after the fall another star will sire
another breed of mortal. Then the dead
will die indeed and take the world to bed.
O birds, gather early.