THE FALL
October ripens as the fallen apples rot
on an orchard bed.
In the woods of Golden Acres Park,
daylight descends
whitely on branches, leaves,
and the crushed-stone path
that winds through the trees
turning in fall.
It is afternoon, is customary
on the bed of stones for a hoary slumber
to pin a snake,
stretched from head, unwreathed
bone-by-bone to tail,
swallowed by the dream that made him
limbless. It is not the decay that kills.
The blind heels do. Uncoiled, returning
to the Tree, whose bitten fruit
you sloughed off,
he waits for a traveler’s heels,
trusting, trusting
…………………… what is done.
Author’s Bio
MIKI FUKUDA’s poetry has appeared in journals including CV2, Eighteen Bridges, PRISM international, and Earthlines (UK). Her booklet Songs from Twelve Moons of the Bear is forthcoming from Leaf Press in their Leaflet Small Book Series. She lives by the woods and lakes of Golden Acres Park in Nova Scotia.