Lacus Autumni

by Josh Pearce

now when i walk i hear the fire crackle

in my ankles and knees like walking on dried leaves

a once green shoot turned to dry gray bark

how does it feel to fall into a lake of autumn

drunk drowning in cider while all the young girls

prepare for their six months in the underworld

and the young boys are ready to be eaten by wolves

cornstalk men stand sentinel in the fields

and wicker women weave catchers for the grain

before the sickleman in the waning days

swings his crescent blade and vulcan's forge

hammer setting on the horizon

in a red october sky takes us all away

to a worker's paradise come dance with me once more

one last samhain spin, all the door

ways to the otherworld are open

apple crisp moon with bites taken from it

and the fire in the devil's hearth is lit.