Autumn Adolescence

Alone in my simple cell’s observatory,

I iterate the haunted names of stars:

Betelgeuse and Aldebaran,

Sirius, Rigel, Alpha Centauri.

I spread celestial maps in excited survey

And blink with timid interest at the moon in her boudoir.

Unattainable courtesan, your false reflection

Mocks me from the black canal.

A hunter with only one arrow,

I stalk the night,

Awaiting my chance.

When every leaf is rotted, what remains?

The sullen smoke of bonfires

Vanishes over gardens where huddled hedges

Creak, and tool-sheds, tensed like cobwebs,

Clench their secrets.

Tasting atmospheres on the tongue,

Myself the unphrased question that obsesses me,

I study the ancient inflections of light.

Kaleidoscopic silence rotates.

I want to join the mauve clouds’ conversation.