Ode to The Greatest Show on Earth

Your stunning regularity masks your irregular beauty,
The Queen of punctuality, you never shirk your duty,
The ease with which you rise and fall
Modestly suggests, it's not a miracle at all.
Yet your daily arrival is The Greatest Show on Earth,
Bestowing us with your light, and brightly bringing birth
To the day in front of us, and the world around us,

Opening our eyes, to what before them lies.

I sometimes fear that you will not come,
Your predictability shot, your time done,
That some strange turn will have kept you at bay
And we will continue, blindly, seeking out the day.
But, glorious, you inevitably appear
A piercing orange bulb, dangling near
A reassuring presence, so taken for granted
My fear subsides. Angst supplanted.

Your indiscriminate generosity is unquestioning,
As we each, personally consume your offering,
But daily, as your power concentrates,
The acuteness of your gaze penetrates.
Is it your wrath or your raw being
That leaves us shaking, hiding, seeing
How we might escape your overwhelming presence
That hints at a nasty fate, a cruel deliverance.

From soft, generous beginnings you have become a monster,
A raging, seething, burning imposter.
Your gentle pink touch is transformed,
Now an unrelinquishing stranglehold.
What insighted this beating agression
From the friend we awaited with such impatience?
You are changed and now so are we,
Weakened, wilted, we are ceasing to be.

And then steadily your tenderness returns,
With a gentle ebbing, your grasp weakens.
Your march across the sky becomes a slipping round the corner
Your fans line up to capture and adore you.
The happy glow returns and we all admire your colour
The heat of the day forgotten, we are ready to love another.
With your dying rays upon us, we shower you with praise
What a beauty, what a blessing, what a maker of days.

I will miss you until the morning
When I'll greet your rise, imploring.
You will return in splendour,
And we will watch, comply, surrender.