An Autumn Poem for You: "Ambered in My Time"

And, as a gift to you readers this morning, and a reminder that my life is not summed up by that dismal letter I've been sharing with you all from 1993 — they can break my body but not my soul — a poem about autumn for you.

October's sharp enameled sky,

September's latest rose beside me,

Recidivism of May in a jug 

Too common for its rarity:

And I

Here, now, 

Ambered in my time 

With less inkling of release

From its wounded turning,

Than these urgent skies,

This defiance of red petals,

This evanescent, final, scent.