This autumn sits on my teeth like the grit after a fall. There's a dark, noisy branch outside my window at night. There's more dark water in the basement corners and the moon shines brighter or hides darker than it did last month. Nothing new to any of this. It happens whenever the leaves start their rustling and a lonesome feeling morphs into the feeling that you're not alone. Outside, the air tastes like playground grease and Sunday school. There are family considerations, gifts to buy. There's a whole world out there waiting for you and it's darker than it was a short time ago and if you close your eyes you can tell something you couldn't have told when it was springtime and the honeysuckle smell obscured everything. Best to crack open the brown liquor so that it glows like muddy gold in the lamplight and keep tall glass of cold ice water by the bed, rent some Kate Hepburn movies and settle in for a bit. Soon, there will be Christmas lights and sleet cutting through your headlights on the way home from work. And after that...after that, there will be other things that bloom and fill up the empty vistas between neighboring houses and the geese will all come back for awhile. It is best to settle in for awhile and do your job, whatever that might be. Everything will happen soon enough.
