the tender mania of early fall

The tender mania of early fall

Fresh this year, after a drought

the park where I’ve been so many times

Where we’ll come some many times

Assuming there is a future

Of course there’s a future

but don’t bank on the parks

On the lilacs

On the water

On the hospital beds

A hundred couples making their rounds

Weekly?

Every evening?

Once in a blue moon?

I’m not here often enough to tell

Me and my patience

My desire to run

I have a dog for that now

And impatience- 

I have impatience, too. 

Up and down hills in brisk dusk

The thrill of the season,

The thrill of being alone

Though better because dog

The thrill of today’s 10,000

emotions

interactions

Wishes

Actions

Dishes

Toilet flushes 

Texts

Yearnings

Plans

Dots connected

Siphoned into this twilit moment

Overlooking the south of our city and

into the suburbs

sun sets as two mosquitos

Have their way with my neck 

Fir needles cut a sharp profile above me

Sky still glowing, blue

Neon in the distance, blue

Crickets humming merrily

Ignoring the obvious:

Their season’s nearly through