Harvest

I must have blinked and missed the twistfrom summer into autumn;last time I looked the poppies ravaged redbut now I’m left with stubble fields and empty nestsprickly like an old man’s beard:such hush has fallen on the landas if it’s all in waiting.I must have blinked for you were gone:last night I held you in my bedbut somewhere close to dawn you leftand here I am with anxious breathtill you remember how we laugh,yes how we love,till you remember and return to me.I surely blinked for time has bledthe years rolled by and it’s long agowe wandered through those open fieldsturned to watch the lightning fork: when I was yet a child:now every year as summer’s leftI turn my head and you’re there againwhen autumn throws her golden netjust for me.