Feels Later Than It Is
The boy is raking the leaves from his yard
a gondolier dipping his paddle
into the water but not going anywhere
Later you see him in front of another house
He is raking all the leaves from the neighborhood
It is the job of a child to take away the trees
One yard at a time the year inches into
darkness This story feels small
when you live inside it as the boy
or as the woman walking by
but as we talk about it like this
you see the red trees gone brown
standing over the boy
parentally They empty themselves
for him They give him a chore