Autumn
You’ve been hiding
under the cat’s paws
and been stepped upon by many feet
yet no harm has come to you behind glass-
nothing touches your hummingbird hope
you can pretend that autumn leaves
are new spring green
but then they crackle and cackle
like old geese and the jig’s up
you really are older than you look
and time presses itself between book pages
into past stories you no longer have time for
and young people want you
to wait for them
to grow up enough to care
but you don’t have time
to wait by their water,
you have to jump
into yours and be splashed by life
with the best possible passion
because it really is autumn,
the long summer has fallen
away, far away
and winter comes
on tiger feet roaring