The Close of October

Every year, trees redeem their leaves,

          the sky slung to our neighbor’s stones.

 

          Finches are bewildered by wind, reiterating

each feathered plummet.

Echinacea musk and rosemary

          alter the drifting smoke of piñon — autumn already

                    decomposing, each blade

          of cactus standing.

 

                    Winter’s measure:

                thin wires inked with articulate crows.

 

The ground is almost the horizon,

                pouring out its oscillations.

 

          A room of gray sweaters. Blueberries

up from the freezer.
 
 
 



Lauren Camp is the author of two volumes of poetry, most recently The Dailiness (Edwin E. Smith, 2013), winner of the New Mexico Press Women 2014 Poetry Book Prize and a World Literature Today “Editor’s Pick.” Her third book, One Hundred Hungers, was selected by David Wojahn for the Dorset Prize, and will be published by Tupelo Press in 2016. Her poems have appeared in Brilliant Corners, Beloit Poetry Journal, Linebreak, Nimrod, J Journal, and elsewhere. She hosts “Audio Saucepan,” a global music/poetry program on Santa Fe Public Radio, and writes the blog Which Silk Shirt. www.laurencamp.com