Autumn in Love
Dave Malone
Smashwords Edition
First Edition
Published by Trask Road Press
Copyright © 2011 by Dave Malone
Cover design by Jenni Wichern
Autumn in Love is the third ebook in the Seasons in Love series.
Discover other titles by Dave Malone at Smashwords.com:
Summer in Love
Spring in Love
Under the Sycamore
Poems to Love and the Body
23 Sonnets
Acknowledgments
I would like to thank the editors of the following print and online journals for first publishing my work:
Dead Mule: “They Build a Wall of Straw”
Mid Rivers Review: “Driving to Autumn Jazz near Hermann, Missouri”
Old City Cool: “Litterae”
I would also like to express my gratitude to Jenni Wichern for the gorgeous photo and also to Darrelyn Saloom who made some substantial editorial suggestions regarding the manuscript.
CONTENTS
High Drama in Low Softball League
Driving to Autumn Jazz near Hermann, Missouri
Nights apart
birth prairie
between the timber.
The dull ache of the moon
over Scott’s Hollow
gasps over gravel.
The chug of my truck
just as lonesome.
But nights apart
fuel dryness—
the golden legs of October fescue,
the red beards of low maples.
Even the night bugs
and the last, long-lived grasshoppers
hold onto song
before the deluge of flame.
Your slight twang rolls
as these southern Missouri hills,
your voice caught inside
those dark keys of “Claire de Lune.”
Because Debussy holds
your head in his lap
and makes you sing,
I sideswipe the composer
on his Sunday drive
until his automobile flames
a russet blaze on Poe Hill.
I whisk your bloody body,
red as stranded crawdads,
down to Fishbone Creek
over rocks as thin
as poorly hashed sonatas.
Katydids rub to rest