The Indulgence of Fall
A Crown of Autumn Leaves
Annie Finch
For Mabon (fall equinox), Sept. 21
Our voices press
from us
and twine
around the year's
fermenting wine
Yellow fall roars
Over the ground.
Loud, in the leafy sun that
pours
Liquid through doors,
Yellow, the leaves twist
down
as the winding
of the vine
pulls our curling
voices—
Glowing in wind and
change,
The orange leaf
tells
How one more season will alter
and range,
Working the strange
Colors of clamor and
bells
In the winding
of the vine
our voices press out
from us
to twine
When autumn gathers, the
tree
That the leaves sang
Reddens dark slowly, then,
suddenly free,
Turns like a key,
Opening air where they
hang
and the winding
of the vine
makes our voices
turn and wind
with the year’s
fermented wine
One of the hanging
leaves,
Deeply maroon,
Tightens its final hold,
receives,
Finally weaves
Through, and is covered
soon
in the winding
of the vine—
Holding past summer's
hold,
Open and strong,
One of the leaves in the crown
is gold,
Set in the cold
Where the old seasons
belong.
Here is my crown
Of winding vine,
Of leaves that dropped,
That fingers twined,
another crown
to yield and shine
with a year’s
fermented wine.
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