I wish these seasons eternal

I wish these seasons eternal
That there will never come a day when this place becomes a beachfront property and only rain falls like memories of snowflakes
That the Californian sun will never burn the skin on your nose here
That saltwater never kisses the sacred rose garden with his lips dry and rough as the desert
That the leaves fall and bless the streets with their lifeblood every autumn and the snow embraces the earth every December to put the squirrels to sleep

The Californian sun has no place here
Don't long for it; don't dream of it
Believe me, I've fallen in love enough times with that perennial blue sky to know that it needs to stay there to reflect its lover--the ocean
Because the saltwater is angry here; it rages against the dark green woods and falls these trees with its longing for freedom

Do not invite her here--the sea
Do not welcome her with arms of warm industrial smoke
Or lure her gaze with coal fires
Do not flirt with her, offering her your everything in a stream of plastic holocaust
And pray that she will come and bestow upon you, with her blushing sunset horizons, eternity

For she will
She will come if you call her here
She will come to you in good faith
For she is a siren that will drown you in her embrace and offer you the deathly, serene, season-less eternity that you so desired

I wish these seasons eternal
That nothing ever stays the same but the certainty that you love these green woods enough to protect it from the seductive song of the ocean and the anger of the sun
That I come to anticipate with you
the budding flowers
the humming bees
the chameleon leaves
and the sprinkling of snowflakes that tastes startling spicy on your tongue
That the only eternity is here in the transitions of the leaves
from lush green
to blood red
to dead brown
and back to life again