Leaves
Leaves
desiccated festoons of summer
shiver in the
knife-edged wind
cruel choreographer
of autumn’s victory dance.
Reminiscences of long
southern summers
prick like hot tormentors in the freezing blue air.
Brittle maps of fossilized veins
lobes furled
in desperate embrace
chrysalises of futility
fighting the dread descent.
The implacable glacial express roars on.
Hurtled from giddy heights
the leaves reel and twist
unable to name the measure
when fear was blown;
stunned by joyously freeing spirals
of spontaneity, late
but elating insight into long-fought surrender
their last thoughts a bittersweet epiphany.
**
Pig Tale
I’m a Southern girl
on the farm
scratchin’ the pig’s back
with a stick.
It’s a good day for both of us.
Companionable silence
broken by the occasional ecstatic grunt.
We idle away a late summer day
not noticing
that the leaves are a little paler
or that it’s not been quite so hot,
subtle signs that fall
and your ultimate fate
draw ever closer.
Some people see you
like the diagram
in the butcher shop
a side of bacon here, a shoulder there;
to others you’re a ham on the Christmas table
flanked by candles
drippin’ red wax
on great-grandma’s green candlesticks.
One morning this winter
Mom will ask,
“Do you want links or patties?”
I won’t remember
today
leaning over the railing
scratchin’ your back
with a stick.
**
Father/Daughter
“Shine the light here.”
I feel the damp
seeping through the knees of my dungarees.
Dad works the wrench
like one end of a seesaw.
Clink-ity, clink, TAP.
“Dammit.”
The glove comes off.
Stiff fingers grope around
in the metal maze
feeling for the fugitive nut.
“Got it.”
“Hold the light up higher.”
I feel a wet nose
prickly fur
tickles my cheek
stinky breath and a slobbery tongue.
The flashlight beam
slices the dark.
Dad shoves Sam away
but Sam is determined to give him a kiss.
“What are y’all laughing at?”
The silhouette of Authority
looms on the stoop above us.
We hold our breath.
“You’re going to catch cold out here.”
We giggle like conspirators.
The door closes behind her.
Now we can go on having fun.
