Excerpt
"So Red"
Blossoms in the late
October light, of such a
saturated red:
what can flower now?
only the now awakened
dark and dull maroon--
like the unburnished
metal of copper beeches
shadowing itself--
of midsummer and
spring burning the japanese
maple's dying leaves
have fired the bursting
into astonished color
of the very self
of lateness, lastness
which itself can never last
longer than the few
moments--in this case
October days--it takes to make
itself intense in,
to put forth something
of light that had either been
waiting all along
to reveal itself
or more likely, escaping
its dead body of
leaf. It hits the road
with a visual halloo
as of a bright scarf
or a letting of
arterial blood in a
high ceremony--
annual, but so
loud this year--of impatience
and acknowledgement.