i am october

My head notes lead
like a picture postcard,
in flashes of red
sugar maple, gold
shagbark hickory.

Initial impressions,
oversized, in mackerel
skies, give way to a heart
of first fires, threshing,
and winnowing.

I toss my gathering
from harvest cradle
to the breeze of gods,
like an old galosh
pulled from a pond.

Sad ellipsis, whose
black bile heightens
with time, like gypsy tears
in the steely steles
of Scioto fog.




Tess Kincaid, 2010



So what, you're wondering, is a "Scioto"? I like to think of it as my little river. It runs alongside Willow Manor, is about 250 miles in length, and meets the Ohio River at Portsmouth. Scioto is a Native American word for "deer", pronounced sigh-OH-toe or sigh-OH-tuh. The most delicious fog rolls in off the river in October and blankets the manor in autumnal softness.


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