Autumn
Finally, falling like paratroopers,
the leaves are blanketing the ground
and the piles are starting to take shape
and I want to kick and jump into the biggest
heaps, like I did when I was a child,
a rather mischievous one the more I recollect.
The world is a mess, but then it’s always been,
tragedies ongoing no matter how I write
against them. Yet soon I’m putting on my shoes,
a light jacket and making the plunge once again,
maybe kicking and jumping less this time
as I reconnoiter the area for the most beautiful
leaf for a most beautiful bookmark.
What have I been waiting for all these years?
the leaves are blanketing the ground
and the piles are starting to take shape
and I want to kick and jump into the biggest
heaps, like I did when I was a child,
a rather mischievous one the more I recollect.
The world is a mess, but then it’s always been,
tragedies ongoing no matter how I write
against them. Yet soon I’m putting on my shoes,
a light jacket and making the plunge once again,
maybe kicking and jumping less this time
as I reconnoiter the area for the most beautiful
leaf for a most beautiful bookmark.
What have I been waiting for all these years?
We Step Out
And walk down the street
lined with apple trees,
heading for the river
or the part of the city
most people don’t populate
as much. We’ve weathered
another round of storms,
nature made and man made
and can once more display
sincere altruism towards
ourselves as well as others,
though we move quietly,
wishing not to be seen
too much, preen too much,
home before it gets dark,
our future lit again to the hilt.
lined with apple trees,
heading for the river
or the part of the city
most people don’t populate
as much. We’ve weathered
another round of storms,
nature made and man made
and can once more display
sincere altruism towards
ourselves as well as others,
though we move quietly,
wishing not to be seen
too much, preen too much,
home before it gets dark,
our future lit again to the hilt.
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Tim Suermondt’s sixth full-length book of poems A Doughnut And The Great Beauty Of The World came out in 2023 from MadHat Press. He has published in Poetry, Ploughshares, Prairie Schooner, The Georgia Review, Bellevue Literary Review, Stand Magazine, The Lake, Smartish Pace, Barrow Street, Poet Lore and Plume, among many others. He lives in Cambridge (MA) with his wife, the poet Pui Ying Wong.
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