I know that I am like the rain / There but for the grace of you

[rustydog]

I drove a long way today, much of the time through torrential rain. When it wasn't pouring, though, I could see that the roadsides are full of asters, Canada goldenrod, a few wild sunflowers, and the last of the gaura, and the riverbottom fields and the road edges are covered in bitterweed. The sky was volatile all day, clearing off in the evening but leaving filmy white clouds lifting right up from the ground in the hills, which by that time were sapphire blue.

"Late October"
~Maya Angelou, from Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water ‘fore I Die

Carefully
the leaves of autumn
sprinkle down the tinny
sound of little dyings
and skies sated
of ruddy sunsets
of roseate dawns
roil ceaselessly in
cobweb greys and turn
to black
for comfort.

Only lovers
see the fall
a signal end to endings
a gruffish gesture alerting
those who will not be alarmed
that we begin to stop
in order simply
to begin
again.

Driving west in the evening: