November Song

 

Year rollin’ round
Ringing days, stringing lays
Ma and Pa Hornet lined the bamboo wind chime
With a rose petal quilt.
Wind flurries, leaf blurries
Knockin’ nest:
“Clunk, blunk, clackety-whak.”

Flamboyant Bird of Paradise raining
Yellow confetti, her lust
Stubborn. November crowns waving
In her hair – proclaiming their skinny Queen.

Rows and rows of fat, purple Mums
Bending in the breeze as the black bees
Dive and hover, dancing lovers
Cover the sunny discs with kisses.

Ma bendin’ needle through buttons
And brushin’ off cat hair from good
Old coat – fingers fattening, joints
Inflaming, quietly humming.  No use naming,
Blaming the numbing dark, cold coming.
Year’s rollin’ round.

– Urania
Nov. 1979