Felled

I walk in the pathetic pages of a used tired book Crushed by the heavy leaves that lied to me The older I become, the angrier I see orange, red, yellow peeling Panting, painting, pelting poems against a soggy canvas and sagging lines like tired feet held together with sad gray shoes We're the oldest ones here The doctor is so young The lawyer is a child The children are all grown My grandbaby is going to college Still when I brushed my hair today and sashayed by you a lilt to my tongue and a swagger in my lips I curved a kiss to you and blew an ocean of windtossed leaves I scooted under them like a silly child Smelling the earth Rooting like a piglet When did Tubman push her passengers along Putting nails in trees to indicate the turn in the fog the fork in the road If she could work into the autumn and beyond Why kant I rite the lanterns of my life? And in autumn You don't need permission To fall and land in earthy grandeur Staggering, solemn, orange Reborn like a felled tree