Chapter 4: Sugar Maple

Looking out

over the yard

one last time,

a sugar maple has gone red,

and with some desperation

holds every leaf up to sunset

illuminated.

Tonight the frost returns,

tomorrow a windstorm,

maybe some snow.

We're all on borrowed time.

The moment has come

to do something

beautiful.

Chapter 3: Love in a Digital Season

I watched you

watch your phone,

swipe your finger

delicately

on its screen

as you sat there

in autumn sun.

We had just crossed

4th Street bridge

into the heights.

Clouds passed, then

the sun returned.

You smiled.

I did too.

Chapter 2: Reality

Out the window

I heard a baby cry

3 floors down.

At first, I thought

it was 2 stray cats

clawing each other

which would have been

less unsettling.  As it was,

the boy's father held him close

as he screamed at the

injustice of a bitter wind or

some other sad reality.

Chapter 1: Socialism

She told me that she knew a guy once

who lived in an apartment overlooking

the south side, between branches

of Black River.  "The view of filthy

sunsets and poor kids walking to school

drove him to socialism."  She said it

as if a great evil had befallen him,

like alcoholism or madness. In her mind,

his compassion for the poor

was something of a tragedy.

Prologue

I have tried to tell you
something about ourselves
these past years, something
about this place,
its proximity to Black River
yet our inability to articulate
or even fully understand
its spiritual importance
in relation to our own.

I used to watch the river
through barren winter trees
out my childhood windows.

It is everywhere here.

I Could Go On Forever

I sat in my car this morning

as it rained like hell, and said to myself,

this can't go on forever.

I thought about how my statement

could apply to many things like unemployment,

war, optimism, or a toothache,

but that I had only meant the downpour.

I switched off my radio, and listened to a song

that couldn't go on forever.