Thirty Days of Fall

Fort Snelling, 3 November 2003for TylerIn thirty days of fall

I hailed the crenellations of daylight

Beneath arrow loops of bloody sky

On uncertain wall walks of river stones

Fixing my senses to the march

Of crunching thistles like the deserted

Footsteps of a soldier left for dead and

Froze to the curtain wall of darkness

I await the windbreak of resolve

Pinned breathless by harmony’s moat

Painting light under a celestial barrel vault

Holding vigil with my son

Shivering on the knees of the drum tower

The beat of darkness departs the fortress

AWOL from the inner ward

Once in thirty days of fall