Living Through The Fall

She blows in through the storm door
An autumn gust just busted in
Lookin like a breeze in spring
Wrong side of fire on summer wind
Brings daylight to its hands and knees
Laughs with a knee in its back
The funeral train is silent
Tied down on the tracks

We all laugh and say she's crazy
Out here drawin a crowd
Bandolinos in the gutter
Bandoleros in the clouds
They say she swallowed the sun up there
She shines like mirrored skies
But there's twilight in that sparkle
Stars shooting in her eyes

That voice betrays melancholy
But you can't quite call it sad
Like she's trying to pull the stitches
From a wound you never knew you had

Accountability ain't spoken here
From Tecate up to Siskiyou
Brains enhanced through surgery
Any double-D will do
Responsibility is prayers
She don't wanna say she ever said
Apologies just stockings
Left underneath another bed

She sends me postcards now and then
From the outskirts of sanity
Bonfires burn on the fringes
Of her amenities
One of these days, she'll blow right through
Lookin like a breeze in spring
Pull these stitches out again
Another grand reopening

That voice betrays melancholy
But you can't quite call her sad
Like she's trying to pull some stitches
From a wound she never knew she had

 © John Kennan 8-20-20