Human Autumn

Inspired by Loren Eisley's All the Strange Hours

Human autumn

before the snow

last attempt to order meaning

before a spring breaks

in the rusted heart

and dreams and memories

fall apart

in irreparable ruin.

Oncoming age

is a vast wild autumn  country

strewn with broken seed pods

hurrying clouds

abandoned farm machinery

and circling crows

family countenance

leaping from place to place

across oblivion.