Colors

October wind sweeps colors of the day
In a mini tornado, ravaging
The hospital parking lot

Days like this remind me
Of evening air years ago
When all of us kids would take that leap

Into piles of bright corpses, freshly raked
And laugh and play in the masses
Of reds and oranges and yellows

Along with the rare greens
Making Christmas with the rest
A sacrifice to what comes after

And I think, even then,
All of us knew we’d end up
As part of the pile

Eventually, maybe
Seventy, fifty, twenty years onward
I’d end up in the same bed

Where both my grandparents, demented,
Kissed the soul of fall and
Greeted the coming cold

In front of my childhood eyes
As I sit here, the feel of winter
Approaching chills my summer bones

In a car in the hospital parking lot
My heart ravaged by a mini tornado
Of October wind sweeping colors of decay

Flying Through Circles

Walking amidst a daylight doze
And with a shocking start I rose
In lieu

Of failures taken way too far
Religion blessed by morning star
We few

Who know to start and when to stop
Who learned that all the world’s a prop
And two

Waking up with a broken sigh
Failed to figure out why and I
Miss you

Don’t you remember the time you were young
Flying through circles so rapidly sung?
I do.

I remember the waves, the beautiful sea
In contrast to the moment when we
Came to

A dreadful conclusion, something like this
Our hearts were not made for ongoing bliss
We’re through

With all the tricks, the lies we’ve kept
Walking away, all in silence except
Adieu