that first cold wind of fall by Scott Ferry

and i remember all the others
and that childish thought that maybe

it wouldn’t come this time
that there would be no more fights

that no one else would get cancer
that persephone would tell that creepy geezer

to fuck off for good and the clock
would click to a stop and the fish

would upend and become airless birds
and none of us could breathe stuck in

permanent liminality without gills
and the children would never learn to walk

upright in the roils of winter with the eels
slapping from the sky like wingless bats

and my heart still not beating
the late october wind waving up my locked spine

and i say ok go to him daughter of the harvest
let the great death take

let the great death

take

Scott Ferry helps our Veterans heal as a RN in the Seattle area. His most recent book, The Long Blade of Days Ahead, is now available from Impspired Press.