✨ Autumn Damask

Let me show you...

Autumn Damask

Come.
Let me show you
the blown open roses
of nearly November.

Geese land in a card deck shuffle.
Their fingers sweep the ground
then plait down the body.

Lie fetal on the ground.
In the Midwest you will see
the world split—
a lidded eye drawn open as if
by marionette leads.

The willows are four crowns pointing down.

Comfort is when
you are tethered
to a place
you couldn’t move
fast from anyway.

Roam the ground where you are
mapped, flat and free, beneath
this sky, this new sea.

—Sandra Marchetti

From Confluence, Sundress Publications, © 2015. Used by permission of the poet. Photo by Corina Bianca Alb, Creative Commons, via Unsplash.