'Equinoctial tears'

“September rain falls on the house.

In the failing light, the old grandmother

sits in the kitchen with the child

beside the Little Marvel Stove,

reading the jokes from the almanac,

laughing and talking to hide her tears.

She thinks that her equinoctial tears

and the rain that beats on the roof of the house

were both foretold by the almanac,

but only known to a grandmother.’’

From “Sestina,’’ by Elizabeth Bishop (1911-1979), who traveled widely but was basically a New Englander.