Autumn Serenade

 

 

                         We sway on porches

                         amid ghostly gazebos

                         down windswept streets

                         of an October childhood

                         leaves drop with a radiance

                         along the pavements

                         in days of first love lost

 

 

                         Witches goblins spray paint

                         to muffled laughter

                         voices in v-necked sweaters

                         wave their crimson banners

                         sing the songs of baritones

                         on gaily colored high school fields

 

 

                         And one night remember?

                         there was Eric and the red head

                         heavens burst in a shower of light

                         when the atom was split

                         before the ozone was pierced

                         and the black hole appeared

 

 

 

                                                      Jack Mashman

                                                      1987