Carrying The Sun: A Poem For Adam—By PJ
A26, watercolor by Kelly Eddington, 2026. Based on a photo by fandom legend Pradip Patel.
Carrying The Sun
PJ DeGenaro
A poem for Adam Clayton on his birthday.
“Daffodils always; deceptively simple but always carrying the sun.” — Adam, describing his favorite flower
Carrying The Sun
The old gods are rumbling in the earth, shaking off their winter’s sleep.
The snow draws back, exposing the small dead things
That have lain beneath for months, preserved by the cold.
A black and grey bird curled on a curb stone, one wing outstretched
Could not escape, yet its pose writes the failure of a local cat to make it a meal.
The cat is also small, but big enough, wily enough, to survive the winter
Helped no doubt by the old man who lives at the corner, tending to the feral ones.
I am old too, I suppose, but perhaps in a different way
Or perhaps not. We both father, foster, and feed the small living things.
Since I cannot save the bird, I step away and try to accept whatever might be God’s will,
Even if I don’t know who he is.
He lives in The Serenity Prayer, and I have called him Higher Power,
But I can say God now. It’s easier and harms no one, at least not the way I say it.
If I am moving more lightly, I still believe in the old gods rumbling in the earth
Pushing up the green fuse that drives the flower.
I think these ideas — these gods — do not contradict each other.
I can see them pooling their resources to tend the first daffodils
Who return every year, turning brave faces to the sky, carrying the sun.