Sextilis to Sept — a Leap of Faith
I quit the days that chill us
As we March toward Sextilis
Romulus intercalated the year
Adding dual moons, factitious
Sex became Octigenti
and Sept, Novem a'plenty
The eighth Moon, august and regal
By the Julian modum viventi
Still, the Equinox vernal
Drifted steadily toward eternal
Delaying the Resurrection
For each revolution, diurnal
Aloysius Lilius
A mathematician imperious
For forty years removed the Leap
Till Easter fell, again, religious
Gregory XIII, too
In 1582
Declared the way we count our months
In the Janus to Decem queue
No one knows what happened that year
From October fifth to fifteenth, in arrears
Persons born — then — were simply unborn
In a ten-day Limbo of contrivance engineered
I spurn and leap, not, the spurious day
Every four years that comes our way
In lieu I take annual six-hour respite
Each Sextilis, led calendrically astray