POEM: november

she flirts with me as
a mountain shadow that retreats
like ebbing tide. evening

is draining water a landscape
disrobed a curtain with sparrow-breath
and felt pad feet.

bellowing leaves can be heard well into the next valley,
steeped in dewy gold
express sunlight drip by shiny drip.

billowing ocher cracks air crisp as toast
with the sharp edge it needs to shatter
glassine darkness, to coax a cornfield’s wish

for summer a secret now divulged:
day can start in earnest, punch a clock
take all her allotted coffee-breaks.

but the start that is a streamstone.
smooth miracle held in raw palms of revelation.
she hikes her skirt just a bit

& asks if i am interested.