a poem, reprised...

Yet Another Fall



Of a sudden shadows lengthen,
leaves strain to fall just as swimmers
long to spring from their boards:
it’s all at once a new fall.
I’m working on a stranger’s roof,
the air tastes of asphalt and rain –
I’m up here on account of my fear.

The wood behind the house is dark;
time for me to go down, time
yet again to go home for the night.
Nothing’s diminished:  we’ll live,
if we live, through another
fall that comes to us unbidden,
so let’s stay among the falling leaves.