in just one breath
last leaf falls
sky opens wide --




* * *



harvest time
bees in final delirium --
then the blue of deep sleep

Last Rose

original photography by poet

mellow light

warming petals

the last rose - -

slender hoops

bent birches --

not easy to be caressed by snow and ice




(we had a freak snowstorm yesterday -- October 18!)

the patchwork of melody
holds a trundling shuffle that
recalls dusty roads
of tired limbs coping --

sleeping behemoths
looming large --
the mountains!