Autumnals

Between retirement and bereavement
come autumnals, the gilded leaves
shekels in crisping-pins;
puffed up sparrows on outmost branches;
quests for surety.

But uncertainty is also a catechism—
our brief expanse
the willowy lights in late October
flickering, blurring day
from shadows descending.

But keep your reflections calm, see a pond
become an opalesque canvas
where fish create expanding circles,
their fins sleeking like angel wings,
a world yet to be.