They recklessly mowed the grass everywhere
Cropped the lot !
(The city council landscapers)
  No verge
        park or public plot
             is left any freedom
                   in its fertility

misdeed

With no places remaining
          no long radiating grasses
                 for quality summer fornication
retreats must be made instead
                  to the usual abandoned properties
                             and construction sites

Giddy romantic tangles are given over
in their place
rutting animals
quick shameful *****
                     graffiti tagged
                               ***** soaked
                            damaged concrete
                      exposed hazardous detritus
                 damp, rust, broken glass and mutty
Absent are the breeding meadows of the gods
this year is no span of leisure
this year is smutted

Aut
12/09/21

She dresses
colors for the autumn
her hair naturally so
metallic in ginger
she wants to summon in the season early
ring it to her heel
to match her charge

            

27/09/21

welling purple and grey sky
a steady cold rain
the automatic sprinklers
douse the neighbour's lawn

             *

for mid October it's not cold
people dress up out of habit

             **

aged couple occupy a park bench
Old Cold White & Doughy
Partnered
Hand in Hand
     sloped into each other like children
          
i never figured out how to make a public bench mine

i’m unplugging the month old box fan for the first time since i moved in
september 22nd the first day of fall and im excited i was made for the slight breeze of the morning and the warmth right before the setting sun
but like i said i’m unplugging the month old box fan since i took it out of its box when i moved into mine
august 29th a midwestern summers peak when i truck back into the alley of a save a lot and the empty room i moved into
it doesn’t really matter though cause it’s two in the morning of the morning after i shoved the first box fan i ever bought myself under the last bed my mother would ever force upon me and i’m getting upset about the rate at which the world keeps turning
so maybe i’m sad because i haven’t seen my friends since i saw my broken box fan i had for four high school summers and didn’t have to purchase with my own barista money and i miss the way we’d understand the nonsense and sit too close together
but it doesn’t matter cause yesterday way september 22nd. the first day of fall and i was excited and i am excited because i’m unplugging that month old box fan that drowns the quiet in an empty room alone at 2 in the morning

I see a lot of Night Moths by day
                                            this year
they battle along
ground level contours
they risk powdered tissue wings
whapping against your person
I question their mission
and wonder what cause
would be worth
such perilous behaviour ?

            

Spider descends on a fresh thread
new project ?
Changes its mind
re-spools itself

             *

autumn sun and breeze
weeds fringing a vacant lot
settling quiet in me

            

i stop
rabbit is still
rabbit blinks
agreeing to run away
i step and rabbit runs

             *

Birds grounding themselves
energy conservation for Winter ?
they feign at being flightless
and eat ground level berries

You are the sunshine
That pours into my car
In mid July

I have always savored
Your feverish embrace
That swaddles my
Anemic bones

And while I sometimes
Catch myself getting burned
By my steering wheel

I would rather kiss
The hot asphalt
Than return to someone
Who feels like January rain

You would sit out and soak;
still refuse to see the rain.
Live out those dreaded summers
from the lonely view of a rusted windowpane.

I played house
while you played my Daddy's games
guilt and trip ugly words from your mouth
still, by night, to call my name
when the sky turned to narcotic dust.
So I sketch constellations of us,
ones where, about each other, we feel the same.

I see you glancing at the brush,
But our bristles don't hold paint the way they used to
And for all the folly in our atmosphere, I am sorry
I know I'm the one who exhaled the most

Remember, your father told you,
"We run the most standing still,"
But my stars have remained perpetually frozen
Since my love ceased blushing your alabaster skin

If you cinch the tourniquet too tightly,
To summer's dismay, I may not heal by autumn
And whether you whisper treasons of the universe or not,
My anchor's still aweigh by first light

Broken words taste bitter upon my tongue,
And it's becoming clearer and clearer
That you were my road to Arcadia
But, as I am prone to do, I derailed us both

I see you glancing at the brush,
But our bristles don't hold paint the way they used to
And for this achromatic atmosphere, I am sorry
I know I'm the one in black and white