Autumn is perched high in my ancient oak
waiting to spread outward
I’m watching the sky for signs
of the approaching morning chill
checking for my breath in the air
listening for the applause of
leaves rolling up the breezy evening streets
My boy sits with me
he doesn’t know what we are waiting for
he’ll remember when he sees it
to him, it’s been summer forever
then it will have been fall forever
blissfully outside the normal stream of time
he can’t see it speeding up
he can’t feel how fast he’s moving away from me
I can feel the Earth turn now
I can feel our momentum increase
I can feel this world skip like a stone
across space, wobbling as we go
He smiles in the splendor of the Now
He doesn’t know regret
he doesn’t worry about the future
he sits and waits with me for Autumn
pure and full of joy
excited by everything
How wonderful it would be
thirty-three first autumns
thirty-three first snows
He doesn’t understand sometimes
when I cry
I can’t explain that
he is the purest I know
his light is blinding
I know the things he will face
and I hope he is never in the
places I was in
like the place I am now
but for now
we sit and listen for the autumn
breeze to move up out street

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