Autumn Again

Sending their cries before them who can say
whether with joy or darker hearts

out of light mist and ribbons of fog
from the river geese come flying over

a shifting line you would write down
but to drop your eyes is to lose them

lose the moment they are above you
headed some yonder they'll discover

without you who now must turn
back to the rooms you ran from

wild to see their cruciate beauty
before they were gone and you were gone too.

Copyright © 2007 Michael Pettit All rights reserved
from Iron Horse Literary Review
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission