There is no light this Fall
     neither sun nor black fluorescent.
Instead, neutral gloom companions us
     while leaves cry out
     not red, orange, or yellow,
but couch brown, sedimentary in the dust.
The cast is somnambulant, 
     with wide awake, inward eyes
     deep rings around outward orbs 
matching the dark blue of their winter coats.

I glide across this scene, silent as the rest
     curled in my friendly straitjacket too 
     flinching from the elemental worst.
I witness the machinery of the people around me
     loving, living, while breathing
     down spacious roads.
In the stillness of the air, 
     children come and go.
     I must leave in time, too.
				
I am slipping down the wind
     unseen,
     by unknown, friends and all alike
Touching no one, no one’s coming
     to recognize this meandering wanderer.
     I glory in this euphoria!
Flight unbridled by the base of life,
     no one knows me 
     no one sees me.
Slipping down the wind unseen
     by all responsibility
     concerns undeigned.
Of flesh, and blood, and souls of others
     no need for such 
     precocious notions        
while leafing through the air
     so wise and so disguised
     as any breezing thing.
Unchecked by anchors or oaken limbs
     down and through the wind
     unseen,
Gone before a thought can be.

See the children gone by.
     I have time left to leave
     to tend to other things
To learn again to fly 
     on rewrought silver
     silken wings.
No time left to grieve 
     much less to sigh
     faced with the end of being
My tears dry up, too scarce to cry.

See the children gone by. 
     I have time left to leave
Swirling smoke of burning dreams
     of memory, of clouds of grief
     of ancient sighs.
Wince back tears too precious cried,
     stay standing still
     and life speeds by.