October

I took my daughter
To the graveyard
On a day without funerals
She totted up
The spans of the dead
From their epitaphs
Then clambered an oak
Twenty feet above the ground

My heart thumped
A poem called
"More Years Gone
Then Remain"
And the crows
Gabbled and cawed

My daughter and I
Built a graveyard
In the yard
With gauze props
Styrofoam and
Black lights
I clambered up our oak
Twenty feet above the ground
And clutched the bark
Till my muscles
Knotted

My heart banged a
Measure called
"You Are Fragile
As A Mouse"
And my Girl cawed
Back at the crows

This morning I saw
Someone thrashing
In the road
A mouse
Mortally damaged
But struggling still
One by one with
Avarice in their
Oil drop eyes
Crows landed
I drove around
Glad my daughter was
At school

My heart sang a
Dirge called
"You Really Could
Do More"
And the crows
Circled up to
Finish things