30 days hath September

[Verse 1]
September’s on its final square,
October’s waiting on the stair.
I check the date and hear again
A schoolroom full of nine-year-olds begin:
“Thirty days hath September…”
Funny what a mind will keep—
Can’t recall why I came in here,
But that rhyme runs six feet deep.

[Chorus]
Thirty days hath September,
April, June, and November.
Little songs we learned back then,
Wind ’em up, they sing again.
Thirty days, and today’s the last,
Raise your coffee to the past.
October’s knocking at the door—
September hath not one day more.

[Verse 2]
“Righty tighty, lefty loosey,”
Still gets every jar undone.
“I before E, except after C”—
Till “weird” comes by and spoils the fun.
“Red sky at night, sailor’s delight,”
I say it watching evening glow.
Got a head full of handy verses,
And a password I don’t know.

[Chorus]
Thirty days hath September,
April, June, and November.
Little songs we learned back then,
Wind ’em up, they sing again.
Thirty days, and today’s the last,
Raise your coffee to the past.
October’s knocking at the door—
September hath not one day more.

[Verse 3]
“In fourteen hundred ninety-two…”
You know the rest as well as I do.
“Spring forward, fall back,” twice a year,
Somebody’s bound to say it here.
Out on the farm, the morning’s turning,
Shadows stretch across the lane.
I watch another month go by
With that old verse in my brain.

[Bridge]
Who first put those words together?
Did they know how far they’d go?
From a page to somebody’s classroom,
To a tune we’d always know.
“Hath” retired from conversation,
But it kept this little job—
Counting days through generations,
Like a faithful ticking clock.

[Final Chorus]
Thirty days hath September,
April, June, and November.
Little songs we learned back then,
Listen—we’re those kids again.
Thirty days, and today’s the last,
Raise your coffee to the past.
October’s knocking at the door—
September hath not one day more.

[Outro]
Can’t find my glasses anywhere…
But thirty days hath September.