The sky is
Marbled this morning
Like a fatty
Steak or Piazza
Flooring streaked with
White showing age
Large god like
Foot prints dig
Heavily into its
Blanket of grayness
Like lumbering giants
Wobbling home from
The bar morning
Sun is only
Seen through slits
Like a lone
Lamp through blinds
I think while
Sipping black coffee
Watching steam rise
Off the pond
Like waiting locomotives
Autumn has arrived
In the south
Bringing crispness like
That very first
Very sweet crack
Of an apple
And that first
Sweet morning sound
Arrived by way
Of bird songs
As the East
Began to glow
Sapphire blue and
Cobalt and pink
Like the sky
Was velvet strewn
With precious diamonds
Someone should paint
This I think
So I have
With these words
See with me
And during a
Walk through a
Thorny thicket i
Spied a bush
Dangling luscious blackberries
Plump to the
Touch ripe and
Sweet I sat
Upon a stump
And dined one
After the other
So many times
In fact that
I finally knew
That it was
You that I
Dared the forest
Only to find
Fall signals the
End of summer
Exploding in color
Leaves sun succulent
Finally release summers
Sunny long days
I have learned
That the end
Of things is
Never the end
But new beginnings
Don’t fear the
Fall but celebrate
Both warm memories
Of languid lazy
Days and what
We might be
Next time around
At my age
You learn your
Place in history
You realize that
It’s not forever
It’s for now
HARLAN DIDRICKSON 