Too many leaves

 

     by Ed Higgins

 

This late November day there are too many leaves filling the yard. Both front and back. Lying everywhere in canary to buff yellows, tenné to taupe browns, brilliant reds, and dull grays. So dry-polished sun glints off them making my eyes hurt on this bright mid-morning. Millions. Probably more. Awaiting my stunned rake. The maples and birches we have planted over the years, in what now seems too much abundance, look down unapologetically at all this shedding fecundity. Not even wondering why I am standing here, rake in hand, dumbfounded by the beauty. And by the day’s long task ahead.  

 

 

 

Last Autumn

  by Joan McNerney

 

A flying carpet of

sugar maple leaves

unfurls along my road.

 

Just enough light to glimpse

silhouettes of yellow trees

against the dove grey sky.

 

Tenacious…one ragged

leaf clings to the bough.

 

Stopping to see the

shape of a snowflake.

 

After evening showers,

a garden of bright meteors

blossoms.

 

Amazing how many stars

fit inside my windowpane.

 

 

Tonight

  by  Joan McNerney

 

Lying around in

our love nest

watching snow gather.

You say it's not as

pretty as I am though.

Unloosening my clothes

throwing them and everything

else from the bed.   Warmer warmer

we want our time together. 

When the moon is full

faces of frost cover

our window.  We will

nestle asleep while storms

drift past the night.

 

 

Bio:Joan McNerney’s poetry has been included in numerous literary magazines such as Camel Saloon, Seven Circle Press, Dinner with the Muse, Blueline, Spectrum, and included in Bright Hills Press, Kind of A Hurricane and Poppy Road Anthologies. She has been nominated three times for Best of the Net.  Poet and Geek recognized her work as their best poem of 2013.  Four of her books have been published by fine small literary presses and she has three e-book titles.