FALL

Listen. I don't want to 

get dramatic

or anything like that but

while you were gone

the leaves fell, the yard

denuded itself, now

stripped and naked

to the morning sun

so when I sit here 

drinking coffee and 

watching my breath

into the cold openness,

I wasn't thinking 

of you or me or

all those mornings

we've spent listening 

to the crows howling

in the silver birch splashes,

the woodpecker working

the apple tree carcass,

the splendid cardinal 

swaying in the highbush

cranberry, you spreading

orange marmalade on

croissants, no, those 

are vestigial remains,

what we once beheld. 

No, I was just thinking 

of you sleeping naked 

beside me, twisted

in the sheets, and,

well, so naked, so

lovely, so nude.