Sally Bliumis-Dunn: Ode to Autumn

So many colors abandon the earth,

and go skyward to the trees

like origami birds,


scarlet, orange, creased

and folded into the mind

where these paper birds come alive,

the trees quiver a little—


this is where I can

still see you


in these gray branches

with brightly colored

birds that are not birds—envision you


still darning

the heels of Jimmy’s socks

those evenings after school


at the kitchen table when

you’d run your finger down our list—

   
not here in the duller green

where the last of the pink roses

are browning on the vine,


and along the fence,

your favorite lilies, wilted,


and everywhere

the hungry bees.

Copyright 2018 Sally Bliumis-Dunn. From Echolocation (Plume Editions/MadHat Press, 2018)

Photograph by Bill Pevlor