Runaway Bride

Before the leaves fell they waved like flags
and as they broke, there seemed a lovely order

to their dying.
                      The water spider moved in
                      no hurry at the bottom of the drained pond.

Everything seemed as it should.
                                                Because I could,
                                                I even spent a while throwing apples

at a fence post. Over and over, my arm hurled
the poor things farther and farther

from the tree that had released them.

Copyright © 2008 Allison Seay All rights reserved
from the Southern Review
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission