October

after Wallace Stevens & Theodore Roethke

One must have a mind of October
to take the mornings slow.

Open eyes
to the grey dusk of dawn,
fall into a trickle
of vermilion leaves.

Paper thin,
the livelong year,
the blanket of our atmosphere—
go under, go under.

Safe to mingle,
rusting green,
leave where you begin.

Fallen, tethered, matters
no longer.
Go under, go under.

Dream into the waking,
October is for taking.
Fallen, tethered, matters
no longer—
take your waking slow.

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