NOVEMBER

Hardened ground. Grass almost black

and still

the question remains—do I repeat myself? Not only in this life,

 but the next?

The house issues its usual sighs. Crows pick the ash tree bare,

 perched like finials in frozen air.

Fated sky, itinerant world, what will I unlearn

that I take as gospel now?

Watery mirage of neighbor’s hemlock wavers

through the old pane—living

on the other side. Every day

it’s a snap, it’s a shrug and suddenly I am

amid

another season. A Bedouin

bent on place.

Unbidden.

Ready to capitulate.