For October

shies away from me:

heavy with prosaic rain and

shifting leaves stamped onto

soil slowly sterile

yet still

shrink under a sun

that threatens warmth

To hollow out a season, a life

to keep from remembrance

it demands:

shed your summer skin

for someplace near mercy

that mass of stifling frost

a generous, generous earth

Fearing old life in pursuit

October wears winter

like a well-loved coat

fritters form and matter away

with its autumn breeze

It warns:

easy enough to

curl under its kindling touch

easier still to catch

flame unable to let go

For October

wills against

bygone poetic subject

rather becomes a wasteland

where word and memory

come to die

and I, cloaked in cold, survive.

Image: Nicole Lau