Autumn By Robert McParland

Autumn
 
In an orchard of foggy lamps,
maple and oak, clouds that entwine,
fragile on summer's edge camps
the sun on a thin-lipped line.
 
Light on leaves crumpled and singed
Sun-gold and halo and hay,
ashes and smoke, foliage winged
unravels into a ballet
 
Season before we fly
mellow and fruitful, star crossed
season of reverie
memory, shadow, and frost.
 
Autumn is colored like apples
in baskets of branches for blocks
and over the v's of the rooftops
fly the v's of the dark inkstain flocks.

Robert McParland teaches at Felician University in New Jersey. His most recent book, The People We Meet in Stories, will be published in October. He is also a musician who performs in the northeast U.S..