Autumn

Sarah Gridley

September 23, 2017 by Leave a Comment

Autumn was too close to solemn.

The silent n,
too understated for the season.

When a metallic feeling bit the air,
Americans called it fall.

Let down
the dusk-blue grapes.
Let out the scope of chapters.

Fall was the real deal.
Fall was the way forward.

You had only to look at the light of God
oiling lengths of the rural guardrails.

Or the centerpiece of fuller’s teasel
the kids spray-painted gold.

Sarah Gridley is an associate professor of English at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. She is the author of three books of poetry: Weather Eye Open (University of California Press, 2005), Green is the Orator (University of California Press, 2010) and Loom (Omnidawn Publishing, 2013).

September 23, 2017 Season: Winter 2017 Section(s):

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