Last month I began this series by posting poems of September in Michigan; this month I’m posting poems of October. My goal is to post a poem(s) for each month, completing the cycle in August. I would be delighted if you checked back each month.
OCTOBER
“Life starts all over when things get crisp in the fall.”
Jordan Baker in ‘The Great Gatsby’ by F. Scott Fitzgerald
1.
Too big to capture
in one image or poem.
Our souls dance joyously
with red and yellow maples
until the oaks take charge
to soothe and prepare us
with rust and soft browns.
The first frost is a surprise
though by noon we are dressed
in t-shirts and shorts again.
We know to wait a few days
to buy frost-kissed brussels sprouts
but put a chuck roast in the freezer;
ready, now, for a stretch of cold.
2.
OCTOBER 10
In small-town Michigan
we watch woolly caterpillars
to predict the coming storm
and note if cranes gather early
in brown-stalk cornfields,
but a more reliable indication
of what we have in store
is the date we break out
our Carhartt coats.
Versace, I suppose,
in East Grand Rapids
or Grosse Pointe,
and I’m not really sure
about Saginaw or Flint.
3.
For two weeks in October
Bill’s Farm Market, near Petoskey,
becomes the most beautiful place in Michigan,
though other spots, too, have champions.
Hills and valleys shout with color
while Little Traverse Bay
shimmers in the distance
and mounds of pumpkins—
white yellow green and orange—
and baskets filled with gourds
or every imaginable squash
demand we take them home
to decorate our porches
and perfect our holiday tables.
4.
ZOMBIE DEER
With winter coming soon
the deer feed like zombies
on acorns fallen into the yard.
blocking the driveway
as I drive its length slowly,
approaching the herd from behind
but the sentinel won’t budge,
guarding her charges
and holding her ground
until I slap the side of my car,
shout and wave my arms
and she reluctantly gives way,
her insolence clearly conveying
this war has just begun.
My book SLOW RIVERS (ISBN 979-8-218-43822-7) can be ordered through your local bookstore or online via bookshop.org, where you can specify a particular bookstore to benefit from your purchase. Yes, you will also find Slow Rivers on Amazon, and I am grateful to readers who buy it there, but does Jeff Bezos really need the money?
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Joseph Neely, all rights reserved.
