October's Path

You'll find a path into October

lined with windswept dreams

and a pattersome thrum on ever-damp leaves

unshielded by Autumn's eaves

A sleepy and late-rising sun

turns morning dew, or frost

into a thousand lanterns, light

for October's morning watch -

for those the month has lost.

infatuations, lasting aches,

aging tales of love and loss -

First and lasts, fires and footsteps -

they all live in October's shade

By your senses, more than five

By what's come and gone

By the woodsmoke and the hay,

the wagon-rides and frost

By the late-night firelight and

barely illumined words

by the cold and deepening night

by crimson leaves and gourds.

The poet's season, so they say,

finds a wandersome way -

So quiet in arriving, so quick to depart -

October, too will find a path

back to you - back to your heart.