Elegiac Dialogues

<p>AUTUMN IN THE REAR VIEW MIRROR</p><p>Driving through autumn’s red and yellow dream—<br />leaving as it comes— road leaves kick up and float </p><p>in the rear view mirror like notes of a Mozart sonata <br />   before falling again like bits of paper reminders</p><p>of projects I’ve started and never finished friends <br />   I’ve let slip away and the orange I couldn‘t imagine </p><p>when I was green.  Passing through the smoke<br />   of burning leaves I am wakened to the stranger </p><p>I’ve become to myself since I walked away from a<br />   town between two rivers where I could hold earth </p><p>and sky in my hand and every morning Meadowlarks <br />   sang for me alone.  Now I ride my fugitive pony </p><p>from quarry to cathedral betrayed and benumbed <br />   by the god who came down to give us glory of flesh </p><p>and the gift of sin…then ascended behind steel gray <br />   clouds leaving me to choose everyday between </p><p>hymen and hymnal moon chalk and sun dust scream <br />   and sob—carrying like the wasp my death inside.</p>