Autumn Comes to Philadelphia
Tree-lined streets--
Hawthorn, oak, sycamore--
Cluttered with dead, wet leaves
Maples--red, yellow, orange,
Like firetrucks, stoplights, school buses
Pumpkins trucked in from Lancaster
Sun skins behind skyscrapers
Earlier each evening
A cold northwest wind
Shops overrun with bats
Witches
Zombies
Soon snowfall
Oil drum fires
Mummers
Will fill the streets
But now,
Only dead leaves
New school children
the first frost on my windshield
Mary Jones © 2003