A red kite blooms in the air with the sweeping gulls
And sails like a leaf raining to the moistened earth.
Bright colored fleeces and pumpkin patterned leggings
Spring about the woodchips like lambs.
Piles of firewood peak out from under the porch,
Behind overgrown marigolds
And wind chimes awakened
By the stirring wind.
Crooked nosed gargoyles
Hatch between the freeze-thaw cracked walls.
Crashed helicopters and seed pods
Perfume the chilled air
As bitter as gooseberry green growing leaves.
Take heed of the glints and flashes of autumn
Whose bright pigments like wet paint
Are soon to drip into a slushy pool:
Summer’s sulking death mask, winter’s unwelcome conception.
