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