The days grow shorter,
The air is colder.
So is the river.
It’s fall.
Different upstate.
Dark is darker;
Cold is colder.
The seasons are not
Muted by lights, traffic,
packed subways and buses.
Running out of time;
I feel it on the river
I’m pressing, knowing there are
but a few days left.
Mistakes made,
Lines tangled,
Trees caught.
Light fading;
Running out of time
October 15, 2021
What does it mean
to celebrate a rock
sitting under a white portico,
1620 engraved on it?
Solid and impervious;
Those white men
who chose this as their monument —
We call them founding fathers.
Generations struggled
to escape
Their rock solid
Assurance that
Their’s was the way.
Millions moved west.
Millions more came.
Some on slave ships,
Others in steerage
to challenge their hegemony.
Women led the way.
I’m proud to be among
the men who followed.
Sexuality, love, laughter
Broke the bonds,
Allowing held hands
to shape a new world
Where their descendants
were humanized
and the rest of us
Unbound.
October 3, 2021
poems for friends 