(after Stanley Kunitz and Stephen Burt)

We think we know what the child does not:
the dead do not come back
time moves in only one direction
what goes down into the earth does not come back up

We think we know that what appears gone
will not come back recognizable
or until it is too late

But the child still knows what we have forgotten:
Halley’s Comet is the same comet each appearance
all things in the universe move in a spiral, including time
everything returns exactly when it is supposed to