buzz of crickets, shrill cicadas
shook the trees
absent now
instead it’s the sharp crunch
of insect bodies
mixed with acorns
beneath my boots
old leaves too
one day they’re tree-bound and wind-rustled
and the next day they show up
down here
this transference
seems fraught with some meaning
it is beyond me
like the warmth that slips farther
away each day
I know it is gravity
that does it
but it seems
much heavier than that
*
Late in October
Playing the odds of one more warm day
The last katydid is hanging tough
While a mantis prepares for hara-kiri
Nervous chipmunks pool intelligence
They’re drawing up secret maps
And hiding them in burrows
I hear each year they forget
Where they’ve stashed them
And so must struggle like the rest of us
Blinded by frozen eyelids
Stumbling, falling
Toward utter hibernation
Squirrels are in my face
Staring right through me
Peering for nuts I may have hidden
behind my ears
I guess I’m no threat now
Compared to what’s coming
The ones who can’t take the pressure
throw themselves in front of cats
*
Fault for the Fall
You’re just being cruel
We really did all we could
To pretty things up around here
A lot of us are trying to pick up after you
But it’s a lost cause and we know it
Leaves are strewn around
With no concern for what’s getting clogged up
Don’t you know the rain needs somewhere to go?
Treeloads of berries are rotting on the ground
The sidewalks are all sticky
And it’s starting to smell
We have to live here, you know
It’s cold
Getting fat is making sense
Already, some of us are starting to give in
Those white flakes you threw in my face today
Were an insult, weren’t they?
Not only that
You threw my hat in the dirt
When I walked out the door
And this killing spree of yours
Goes on and on
I know for a fact
The doe on the highway
Was innocent
*
Unappreciated
Sticking to my boot heels
Soft flesh of rain-pelted trees
Downed too early, the newspaper said
To show the very best of fall color
Another failure like this
And the whole year will end
In the middle of December
Instead of just freezing
It will be two weeks
Of absolute zero
And no light at all
Then we’ll be sorry
We criticized
Autumn’s best effort
*
words and image by Tullio DeSantis
image: “FALL” by Tullio DeSantis, altered ink drawing, 2011.
……………Text and Image, TFD 2007
Autumn is the perfect poem and art work for this piece. I liked the use of colors and tones. This piece I really connected with.
It reminds me of a pile autumn leaves. With all the oranges, yellows, and reds whirling together into one jumble.
This is a very energizing piece. It is a perfect depiction of fall, and I can actually see the shape of a leaf after looking for a few seconds.
I like the feeling the poem gives me when I read it. The process of the seasons changing and then the picture of all the warm colors together gives me a refreshing, cleansed feeling. Like the start of something new, or the start of a new season, with everything changing around you like the tree leaves etc.
This extraordinary picture takes me to a happy place in my life. I was only eight years old and didn’t have a care in the world. This picture is colorful and expresses a happy tone. It expresses freedom and happiness in the bright colors that are displayed in this art.
I enjoyed reading the fall poem post. Reading each of them, I really felt the fall spirit. My favorite was “Fault for the Fall.” I found it to be funny, and simply fun to read. It made me chuckle to myself a couple times.