AUTUMN

I want to mention

summer ending

without meaning the death

of somebody loved

or even the death

of the trees. 

Today in the market

I heard a mother say

Look at the pumpkins, 

it’s finally autumn! 

And the child didn’t think

of the death of her mother

which is due before her own

but tasted the sound

of the words on her clumsy tongue: 

pumpkin; autumn.

Let the eye enlarge

with all it beholds. 

I want to celebrate

color, how one red leaf

flickers like a match

held to a dry branch, 

and the whole world goes up

in orange and gold.