Autumn’s Kiss
by Lenora Rain-Lee Good
from Claude Monet’s The Sheltered Path

Autumn has kissed the air,
trees, rabbit burrows.
Harvests are collected.
Women lay-up food for winter.

A boy walks the path
bouncing between ruts from
countless carts of wood
for winter warmth,
for barter, for life.

The kiss of Autumn calls
fish, birds, small animals
to prepare for winter; to prepare
to die, for the boy who walks
seeks meat for his family’s table.

The path is sheltered;
those who traverse it are not.
The eagle flies above.

Return to: