Autumn Signposts

September cornstalks,

parchment dry, tasseled tepees.

Air, sweet as cider.

Nights raucous with sound,

crickets, cicadas, darkness

alive with buzzing.

* * *

October days, crisp

as McIntosh apple

brisk, tangy, red, green.

Mornings: riotous

grackles chatter. Finches

bob on thistleheads.

* * *

November skies, gray,

white. Bare branches, sparse pale leaves.

Red, gold, green have fled.

Loud honking, now; the

sonic boom of geese on their

flyway, passing, gone.