Ode to Autumn
       

Thoughts are mist. I'm restless,
yet tired as an old leaf. I yell at the yellow trees,
I see you! See me!

The light going to dark, a friend in the hospital, surgical
saw slicing his cranium, then what, radiation, chemo.
Pour another glass of wine, cook that salmon, it's fake,

farm-raised, good although something dangerous in it,
you could investigate but why
be completely clear about semi-edible poison?

We're cleaning out our basement, gleaning
for the holidays, searching the furrows of ornaments
for the cardboard skeleton to hang on the door.

Things multiply, ooze out of their cells. Plenty more
to replace everything. Have you noticed the ripening
of drill bits, cars, jeans, medical plans

few can afford. O, we go like leaves,
wailful cliché however it happens,
lost cricket in the hedge-row, bleating lamb.

I glare at the mystery until I imagine
sitting on death's branch, gazing out on rooftops
hours by hours, the rosy-hued peace,

the sky reflected in the neighbor's pool.
Climb down through a melancholy choir
of gathering gnats and pow, it's blue,

sun igniting water. Then cool cement,
and drowsy perfume of woodsmoke, just-cut
grass. Close your brimming eyes,

hear your heart's soft treble,
until you're lifted like a rain drop in reverse
into the tattered pearl of a winnowing cloud.

Copyright © 2010 Susan Browne All rights reserved
from Zephyr
Steel Toe Books
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission