To Fall

Forget about the night before
Already the ashes have blown away
The coins have dropped
Beneath the vent
The birds coast by
The leaves won't stay.

To Love

To love the season as if it were love
of life caught in a foot-hold trap
as much to shine with the sun of green
wings folding as touch the sea within

A violent love of angles, degrees pending
my love holds up her hands, a barricade
of wishes shaped like leaves, toss of tree head
her life another cycle about to turn around

To love as much as the ripe berry
that falls away from home so readily
in its prime, good for teeth and acid
good for having lived and died for me

To love closes in around the faded
and holds it in green song and promise
where just before a robin pulled at the ground
and the brief connection was all there was