Autumn Rubrics

Green is our mother. 

Blue is our father. 

Ocean, sky, 

river, leaves: elemental, 

spangled, alive.

But it’s red we belong to, 

filling our veins,

firing the tops of sunrise mountains, 

falling from the fingertips 

of October trees.

Red is the blush of living, 

yearning for someone 

to help us understand 

how to live in vulnerable 

bodies that glimpse 

a blue-green wholeness. 

No one on earth lives there. 

No one. We only visit.

It’s red we belong to, 

in infancy and maturity. 

And with red, we move on.