LYNN E. COHEN

OCTOBER BIRTHDAY
                             
In the clear, crisp mornings
The dew-covered moments
Of apples and honey
pumpkins and cider
Fall dons a costume
fantasies and phantoms
Ghastly reminders of our aging
Winter's wrinkles wait
in the starched apartments
the distant hallways
of our future

While candles mark
Another equinox
ninety-six to be exact
refreshments are diet supplements
the guests long dead

Somewhere in London
A daughter walks oblivious
In her own dotage
Closer in Indiana
A boy mourns
What has been lost
In the primal moments
the last Indian summer days


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