Autumn Lament

 Published in Calliope by the Mensa Writer's SIG. Fall, 2021.

Autumn Lament

The boy skips ahead on the dirt road,

Impatient with an old man on a cane,

The dog bounding between us.

I point out the colors in the trees,

The hawk gracing a fence rail on the ridge,

The pink gathering in the west.

God’s artistry, I tell him,

Hoping he will remember.

But probably not.

And for a moment I imagine

This is still the country I grew up in.