The Coming of Fall

Sherod Santos

Like a wedge of cranes,
the morning rain spread
beneath the bellied
clouds, drifting into
a failing stand of aspen
trees, awakening you
lying beside me. And I
was reminded then how
far it had come, and from
what cold region,
to unsettle again the late
blossoms and grass-
blades-to unsettle you
again this way:
so that now you lie
silent in this split
season, staring through
the window, and instead
of the weather adding
ourselves to the growing
dissolution of mud-flats
and detritus . .. Today,
for no reason I can say,
a light rain has fallen
like an immeasurable.
distance between us,
and now no word, no
gesture of affection
can forstall the arrival
of the cold, or the wind
that will carry it
steaming off some Atlantic
shore, where, already,
the beaches are fast
going black with leaves.