October Poem

2nd Mortgage

Gold, Amber, Orange
Still supple
Silently parachuting
To green ground.

Sun will weather to leather
brittle and blown
across the frost-browned yard
leaves which smother summer.

Finches frenetic in their fanfare to fall
Call
in cacophony
Mockingbirds, robins and wrens.

Furry- tailed bandit
Lands on the awning
Then leaps
nut-in-mouth
to the deck
ducking Precious.

Halloween black
Hen- on- a- nest
Curled in fur against the dew-glazed morning
Persian too timid to do more
Than watch in wonder.

Having ravished my lettuce and pillaged my pansies
Seeking at their roots a place of safekeeping
The squirrel scrams
When he sees me.

Still I swing.

Last summer in school-free heaven
Today a worshipped Sunday
wrapped in Mama Sargeant’s quilt
coffee steaming from china
not chugged from a thermos.

Last night I was a genie
Today I ask God to grant me three wishes
No
Two
Peace
and a place to live
in passion and purpose.