walking the dogs


walking the dogs
on such a gentle autumn day
before the storm
this beauty
in the valley
folding leaves and trees
yellow you know
orange
grey-green lichened sticks
all that stuff
your natural beauty
the light through this array
which leaves me cold
all these things are vanishing
like my drawing of Magoo
so fragile the drawing
just we two saw it
shared it
before I tried to embellish it
and the beauty died
like my several loves
that barely breathed

* * *

If life were long
I'd sit
but life is fleeting
so I run hither and yon
looking for a place to sit
and toast the days now gone
life flees right through us
folds its tent

* * *

I met Magoo the other day
such a frail face
bundled against the night
fragile as a robin's egg
already shattered
a lifetime ago Magoo dropped his first trip
not even a paisley he said
a lifetime on and he's no more filled
filled and empty
time has run roughshod through his face
and whether or not anything has happened
everything is done
a manuscript as long as time
bleeding its few memories
read once
now waiting a wind
to blow the covers shut
all my summers are gone
I figured one might come again
if I could just hold on

* * *

lucky leaped
he so enjoyed himself
dog bounding through the autumn field
while I worried the day

.