Liquored up with color,
trees grow loud
in retreating daylight and crisp
air. Yellow, orange, and red
sugar maples are a Miles Davis
jam session. Lemony elms and birches
resonate a string quartet’s vibe
and scarlet sumacs burn a torch
singer’s throaty melancholy.
Taupe beech leaves evoke folk
guitar and coppery oaks
play drum rolls against the hills.
Sassafras is reedy oboe bright.
Choirs of color perform
despite few listeners as foliage
season ripens to a crass theme
park for touring leaf peepers
seeking the peak experience.
It’s never as good as promised,
as remembered from childhood,
or as vivid as a photo-shopped
screen shot. We wait for moments
that won’t ever arrive even
as saturated tints vibrate the eyes
with waves of sound
urging us to see anew.
