Untitled Poem

Vibrant colors fade and fall

in the autumn winds and rain,

revealing a barrenness, stark

against the harvest season’s muted sky.

Family Reunion

In summer’s high light, she stood at the sink,

the dishes stacked haphazardly, teetering,

or drowning in sudsy water, hot and steamy

to rinse them clean, and cleared now, washing away

the remnants of a family reunion, an annual gathering

of dysfunctional relatives hanging about,

their voices slurred and hushed, the clang

of horseshoes pitched or the whine of children,

tired and restless, parent voices raised and calling out

threats and promises made to quiet them, drawing

her back to ’65 and Uncle John’s leering,

luring her, grabbing and groping hands, his

breath sour and lingering … still … her calls unheard

in the din of a family gathering no one cared to attend,

but feared to stay away from, even now,

to quell the rumors and stories best untold;

and with apologies, threats, and promises made,

her innocence was taken in a gathering of family,

and in summer’s high light, she stood at the sink,

teetering, the dishes stacked, drowning

her tears behind sudsy water, hot and steamy,

the remnants of a family reunion that can’t be washed away.

Carpe Diem

The fishermen and the lobstermen, up before dawn,

long before the sun lifts herself above the dark

horizon that blends earth and water and sky into one,

long before most men have finished their dreams,

dreams forgotten or vaguely remembered

when the alarm sounds and they rise

to face the daily chore that has become their lives,

just as the fishermen and the lobstermen have risen long

before dawn to face their lives out on the dark ocean,

they say, the fishermen and the lobstermen,

there’s a flash of green heralding the sun’s morning appearance,

a flash of green light just before she raises her head

to a new day, illuminating the earth, enlightening it,

a verdant flash missed by most men, still asleep

and warm under quilted covers pulled tight, and secure,

that momentary radiance seen only by those rising early,

a brief green flash just before the sun rises,

turning darkness to shadow, to gold to red to blue,

separating, again, the earth from sky and water;

and that flash of green, a mirage at sunrise

heralding something new, is missed by those of us asleep,

afraid, and trying to remember the dreams we lost,

an opportunity lost because we slept.

October's Windfall

A single autumn leaf, just one -

October’s windfall - pasted itself

to my window while I slept,

and in morning’s sunlit brilliance

drew me from my quilted warmth

into today, one more day,

with hope for the changing seasons ahead:

a single autumn leaf, October’s windfall

in morning’s sunlit brilliance.

An Indian Summer

Indian summer left us as abruptly as it arrived

with temperatures back up to summer’s warmth

at the end of early autumn’s first cold week,

a deep blue sky accentuating the changing leaves,

yellow to orange to red to brown,

forcing us to dig out the shorts and T’s

we’d packed away, no longer necessary

with summer done and gone into the season’s changing,

enjoying now this sunshine arriving, temperatures rising, 

forgetting any chores and projects we’d promised to do,

screens to take down and storm windows to put up,

until this morning, fall returned

with a sky gone white and mottled gray,

a breeze blowing strong the low temperatures’ return,

our collars pulled up tight against the cold,

the weekend but a dream gone, too, in waking, a reminder

of what we’d had barely a month ago, a tease

as we looked ahead to autumn’s season, autumn’s reason

but to take us gradually into the cold and snow to come,

yet for a couple days, a weekend at the lake,

summer returned, rewarding us our diligence,

and reminding us, lest we forget, that nature is like that,

unpredictable, unbound in its course, ever changing,

seasons stopping in their moving forward, moving onward,

seasons stopping to give us a rest in our own courses,

our own seasons, like nature’s, moving forward, moving onward,

unpredictable, unbound, ever changing.