Our lives are an amnesty given us.
William Stafford
meanwhile the trees
are relaxing their grip
turning toward sleep
in a kind of hypnagogia
vivid and hallucinatory
against the gray
‘HUNTERS WEAR ORANGE
SO SHOULD YOU’
though the sign itself is yellow
as are many red maples
it’s the most primary
that school-bus color
meanwhile children play tag
outside an Amish school
in clothes so plain
it marks them as exotic
one of them rooted to the spot
scrunching up his face
a hole opens in the clouds
but not for any missiles
meanwhile skeletons
are unsettling in front yards
one pushes a lawnmower
towards several bony arms
like barked sticks
sprouting from manicured grass
in the distance some engine
i don’t notice until it stops
and i’m left with the sound
of my footsteps in fallen leaves
walking the empty bed
of a former coal country railroad
past pastures and high hayfields
up into the autumn hills
just below the clouds
a raven gives his voice box a shake
and out tumbles
something like a child’s cry
crossed with a horn
18 October 2023