that one autumn--
that cruel come-early autumn when
the river became our enemy and
leaves went straight to brown--
the valley itself was in mourning,
weeping for promises broken
stillborn crop bargello,
sinister as snakeskin,
coarse as corn mash,
sloughing off windswept hills,
submerging vain hope,
choking even pestilent vetch
into whimpers
that one autumn
eviscerated spirits:
nascent folioles fell too soon,
returning to the vacuum of sodden earth
in slime-laden dun cadenzas
(it was said that an acre died
for every fruitless tear
consumed by the merciless torrent)
that one autumn –
a deluge, deaf to prayers:
when the rain and the rage subsided,
we harvested stone …
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Rich Follett, the Poet Laureate of Strasburg, VA, has authored Responsorials (with Constance Stadler, 2009), Silence, Inhabited (2011), Human &c. (2013), and Geminations (with Constance Stadler, 2023) through NeoPoesis Press, and Photo-Ku (2016) through NightWing Publications. Rich is featured in the ODU Virginia Poets Database at
https://digitalcommons.odu.edu/virginiapoets.
Information and publications at www.richfollett.com
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