blithely ignore all prognostications
as they scatter like errant leaves
before an indifferent wind
on the dry and broken grass
of the roadsideThose incontrovertible signs
The woolly caterpillars
and the persimmons
and the buckeyes
The
leaves that turn from green to red to brown
before falling like lost souls
cast out of perdition
How many more days
before the hoarfrost
finely dusts the ground
like nitre
on catacomb walls
They pay no heed to the obvious
until the obvious
pays heed to them
and their frozen bodies
unnoticed
crunch beneath the feet of passersby
October 1999
