Aging

And if there comes a day
when the white of white nights
dissolve into the eternity
of frozen dawns
when flowers refuse to fold into buds
and waters will not speed back
upstream and into mountain
when kiss-clouds threaten to break
but don't carry her water
that is when childhood ends
in never-again finality,
a Franciscan told himself
passing an imperishable intersection
unknown to the world.