Kay Middleton

O, October what have you done?

O, October what have you done?

taken away my mother then

lay silent and guiltless for three years

now unfolding your glorious colors

across the countryside

with air crisp as apples

laced with the odor of first fires

lit to take the chill out of a morning

O, October what have you done?

phoning me on a morning filled with its own concerns

of newspapers, obituaries and reports

that sound very much the same as yesterday

a repetitive babble, murders, apartment fires,

politicians wearing scandal like red neckties

planning dinner no one will eat

writing grocery lists to be discarded

swept aside with junk mail and unfulfilled plans

O, October you steal silent

short days of skies busy with migrant birds

disguising your pain in brilliant color

weeping leaves as your life blood settles deep

falls deep and slow and sad

long nights with golden moons misty

edges, you have kept your promise of death

O, October what have you done?

buried my mother

and now my father

and left me orphan.