Elegy
        t.m. m.b.s. 1972-2014

Autumn is the season of slow reside,
shredding ivy, green-turned-brown.
Leaves absolve the earth before they die.

Leaves well kept, blown, layering the sky,
stepped on, so settled in sky-sound—
autumn is the season of slow reside.

Sun shows late for the fallen. Shines
stubborn, a street lamp in that polis of clouds.
Leaves absolve the earth before they die.

Leaves stripped and torn as they pine
for frost, first-snow, blood on the ground,
autumn is the season of slow reside.

Leaf-smoke catches in the eye, the kind
of worldly pain all birches bear. How
leaves absolve the earth! After they die

the sky will weather and rain less light.
December will also die. How round
autumn is, the season of slow reside.
Leaves absolve the earth before they die.

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Copyright © 2020 Alexis Ivy All rights reserved
from Taking the Homeless Census
Saturnalia Books
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission