North American Dreaming: Parade Of The Cattails
William Burkholder’s poem encapsulates the sadness of autumn.
Bending in the breeze,
the parade of the cattails sway,
Speckling blue sky and sunlight,
milkweed silk,
dancing a dry autumn jig
Warming currents of October air
make them dance as if, without care,
As if,
I should dare,
To remain earthbound, and not fly with them
on this beautiful day.
That I too,
should cleave to autumn's whim.
To enlist myself in its lacrimae
Its tears of season’s end,
deep, cold, restful sleep.
Blanketed by winter’s frigid wrap,
longing for respite of warming solstice ray,
and for the day,
When once again,
comes the parade of the cattails sway,
bending in the breeze.
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