Autumn's Love

November in my
California valley

Slanted rays of the sun
coming in 
through Autumn’s robe
at midday
refracted and diffused 
into bands of warm 
earth colors


Golden rays
piercing the crisp air
hanging between me
and distant trees

A misty haze descends
lightly, 

uninvited 
she mingles with 
and befriends 
the rays
of refracted particles becoming
a phantom’s veil

Floating across
the white picket 
fence row’s
stoic sentries 

daring me to
approach and scale 
their pointed
weathered wooden heads 

To gain entrance
into that landscape of 
jack o’ pumpkin colors,
the reds and browns 
of fallen leaves
carpeting the orchard floor

The elms remain 
green still
in my sight’s foreground
I will walk by them and greet
their leaves 
before gravity claims
their fluttering falls 

gentlest wisps 
spirit breeze’s breath 
her chiffon tongue
birthing soft 
convection currents 

brushing elm’s leaves 
sensuously
as they tremble afraid
of extinction,

striving to speak
as i walk by,
expecting salvation
from certain death

who am i 
involved in such matters?

no horticultural skill 
can save them

“mere human i am,
helpless
to save even myself 
from the same outcome,”

I mutter to them as i walk past,

approach the fence 
without a stile
i straddle

a sentry pokes my crotch
i exhale air
holding my breath
with a muffled groan

delightfully entranced,
far from the grinning pickets

i trod forward
magnetically drawn
to Autumn’s soft breast
the inner folds of
her sun lit robe