Autumn in the Wings

Twigs’ lush medium is converting to
calligraphy, the dismissal of leaves
to launch its winter forewarning. Laden
with late acorns, squirrels chuck-chuck purposeless
memos, counter-balance full bellies, tails
unfurled. I am embracing—keepsaking—
the unscrolling calendar, harvesting
days tossed my way, the prodigious burden
of nows. Hunters will bruise this calm soon, but
until then it’s choirs of jays, cranes, and crows.

 

 

D. R. James has taught college writing, literature, and peace-making for 35 years and lives in the woods near Saugatuck, Michigan. Poems and prose have appeared in a variety of anthologies and journals, including Sycamore Review, Rattle, Hotel Amerika, Galway Review, Dunes Review, South Dakota Review, and The Sow’s Ear Poetry Review. His latest of eight poetry collections are If god were gentle (Dos Madres Press) and Surreal Expulsion (The Poetry Box), a new chapbook, Flip Requiem, is forthcoming in Spring 2020 (Dos Madres), and the micro-chapbook All Her Jazz is free and downloadable-for-folding at the Origami Poems Project. https://www.amazon.com/author/drjamesauthorpage