Autumn Cheers

 

Autumn Cheers

(“For your loyal love extends beyond the sky, and your faithfulness reaches the clouds.” Psalm 108:4)

Was the air wearing the scent of autumn today,
was the atmosphere dressed just to display the beauty
that dissolves into love?

Was the sky earth-hugging today, full of gray on white,
all business and play? Where the leaves fell
the robins and jays danced while tiny dogs
barked them away.

Night comes early and the light less steep,
the shadows are longer and sharper, our cheeks
blush as creation whispers romance;
lover and beloved sans words, sans precision,
gather the panorama of bonfires and the smokey presence
that follows the wind’s suggestions.

We see. We touch. We breathe. And much is
forgotten. We shiver, we sigh, we leap onto
piles of leaves
and remember the sewn manikins we stuffed
(plaid shirt, blue jeans, knit cap) and placed
in an old wooden chair on the front porch come
October.

It is never over, this canvas that paints our days;
they are never over, these reminders in the sky
that, whisper or wail, release in us upwelling joy
to embrace the caresses of the universe.

Our deepest pleasure is to toast the One who-in-love
composed it all, though are cups are too small,
our wine too common, we still say

Cheers,

and look around in silence while laughter
from the neighbor’s back yard enlivens our
pleasure, and we drink again, including more again
in our circle of mouth stopping wonder.