Cloud Mountain (Autumn Poem)
I. Autumn falls, silver, in tune Breaking the soporific spell that held us You smell it first on the seaways Then inland, on currents of air On gusts, on plumes – You see it first on the face of the moon A new warmth even as we go cold in its light A new warmth that lasts through myriad cold and dreaming nights My love, I need you to warm me As I, reciprocally, warm you Gaze benevolently down from your heights upon me Cold and sad and missing you Wondering why I shy away when you, in your warmth, come to me A lantern in my frost-breath loneliness To warm me, to hold me Knowing I am alone, regardless, when the ghosts sleep. And. Wondering. Alone. But why? II. The mysterious north comes down With smell of ghosts in passageways Stealing inward with a glance I view, afar, the downwind summer days Knowing that I must accept That the season of clouds has gone That the season of light has come It’s the season when days retract