Beauty contest

Looking out my window

At the sky

Mornings

I am certain that sunrises are,

Generally speaking,

More beautiful

Than sunsets.

Hands' down; no doubt about it.

But looking over the bay in the late afternoon

I change my mind:

For spectacular beauty

Sunsets win out over sunrises.

No contest. Case closed.

The problem is

A few days later

My certainty about the superiority of sunsets fades

As a particularly rosy-fingered dawn

Over-rules my belief system.

And so it has gone

These past 50-odd years.

Believing one thing at dawn,

Another at dusk.

                                              -- Panama, January 23, 2005