Tom Sexton is the author of Cummiskey Alley: New and Selected Lowell Poems, which will be published by Loom Press next week. To order, please visit www.loompress.com

Autumn

by Tom Sexton

What is it about a late autumn

afternoon with birch and sumac leaves

drifting down, that catches the breath

makes you want to live forever,

leaves that remind me of the colors

worn by sulky drivers at the starting gate

with an October moon overhead

like a snail with all the time in the world?

You were probably in the stands,

shivering a little as the afternoon cooled.