October air is cold in my throat,
and it smells like clean laundry, Momma’s apron, pinecones, summer rain
I make wishes on falling leaves on the way home from school, and
never step on the red ones [they were princesses in other lives]
Let dinner be good.
Let Momma have had a good day at work.
Let me have a big brother.
Let there be peanut-butter banana crackers on the table.
I kick acorns into a pile at the front door for the squirrels and deer and rabbits;
pull at the straps on my backpack because the driveway feels safe under my sneakers, and
kick a pile of leaves up
up
up
up
up
into the pumpkin-picking-blue autumn sky,
let them scatter and fall in my hair;
The leaves are my crown, and I am Queen of red-orange-yellow.
Mar 23, 2012
Mar 23, 2012 at 9:33 PM UTC
October air is cold in my throat,
and it smells like clean laundry, Momma’s apron, pinecones, summer rain
I make wishes on falling leaves on the way home from school, and
never step on the red ones [they were princesses in other lives]
Let dinner be good.
Let Momma have had a good day at work.
Let me have a big brother.
Let there be peanut-butter banana crackers on the table.
I kick acorns into a pile at the front door for the squirrels and deer and rabbits;
pull at the straps on my backpack because the driveway feels safe under my sneakers, and
kick a pile of leaves up
up
up
up
up
into the pumpkin-picking-blue autumn sky,
let them scatter and fall in my hair;
The leaves are my crown, and I am Queen of red-orange-yellow.