Particolored

I'm spinning, Lord, I'm a leaf in the wind
half green, half orange. I slipped the limb
a little ahead of time, hoping to fly!
Now butterfly-gaudy, Joseph's-coat bright,
particolored hobo on an autumn train,
I hover over bonfires, half leaf, half flame.
White ash spirals wraithlike from coals,
my heart is featherweight that used to be oak.

Dark earth calls me down to the ground
where leaf turns to mold and red to brown
half plant, half earth, embracing decay.
Spinning down in the brown and silver rain,
thistle-white fungal threads corseting my flesh
bare to the black earth's warm tenderness.


Collection available! Knocking from Inside