Slipstream

"Sshhh, pay attention... feel the season's subtle question, 'are you ready?'

It's changing, the breeze licking the flesh of your bare arms, and cheeks, caressing your throat with bared teeth, as autumn in another name approaches,

carrying winter on its back like pale horses,

between the falling leaves and torn pages.

The air is thick, it shimmers like underwater

at the very edge of where the sun's rays reach.

Darkness closes from around all the edges like the end of an old cartoon,

"it's warm, that's a surprise."

A little light pushes through life like blood

through thick gauze, slowly,

then coming together in a brick of red…

darkness again,

"That's all folks…"