Michael T. Martin

culture & the contemporary city

For the first day of autumn

October by James Schuyler

Books litter the bed,
leaves the lawn. It
lightly rains. Fall has
come: unpatterned, in
the shedding leaves.

The maples ripen. Apples
come home crisp in bags.
This pear tastes good.
It rains lightly on the
random leaf patterns.

The nimbus is spread
above our island. Rain
lightly patters on un-
shed leaves. The books
of fall litter the bed.

They will say, ‘They lived in
The days of the good comrades.
It must have been wonderful
To have been alive then, though it
Is very beautiful now.’
For Eli Jacobson by Kenneth Rexroth