In the country, roadside

the autumn colors are already here
and we're not impressed, maybe
it was the way we forgot to watch
them gradually when afternoons
were orange and our noses blushed more
red than maples. The poplars are
that impetuous yellow; remember how
you thought they must have been ill-
mannered children in another life? maybe
it was my father who said that. They're
yellow this year and we didn't really notice
them or the purple of sumac or even blue
in the October sky. And yet we knew it was so,
sensed they had arrived, wondered how
cruel nature must be to steal away our hours
and end our afternoons. You keep driving and I
think these things as the yellows quarrel
with purples as children often do. 

(katy loynes teson, circa 2004)