This is definitely my favorite time of the year.
It’s right after summer,
which is always a relief,
as the summer heat here
in Southern California can get pretty damn
uncomfortable,
particularly if you live in an old apartment
from the thirties and you don’t have
air conditioning.
Just when you can’t take the heat
anymore, enduring months of claustrophobic sweat,
a cool breeze begins to creep its way
into the hot afternoons;
and soon, after several weeks,
you begin to feel the calming forest winds
drifting between tree branches
into far away valleys
into the housing or apartment tracts
where you live.
There’s something so peaceful about this
wind it’s almost creepy.
The oncoming winter is in this wind,
the oncoming blizzards and storms,
and the chilling vulnerability
of cold bones.
Crawling beetles are in this wind
and the blossoming of pumpkins.
This is the season when the spider
feels most content,
spinning its web
across the beams of suburban homes.
Its ready to suck blood of insects
with cozy understanding
that death is necessary
for the cycle
of seasons.
These autumn winds
bring with them the haunting madness
of forests.
They bring with them the rustling of dry leaves
and the ants crawling through pine needles.
They bring with them the rat and his rattail
scurrying over a squirrel carcass
filled with squirming maggots.
They bring with them the new and old growth
of yellow flowers in a field surrounded by crooked trees.
They bring with them the mountains.
They bring with them the nostalgic memories
of a childhood Halloween.
They bring with them the falling of dead leaves.
They bring with them a golden-glow-sunshine.
They bring with them the brown and orange colors of fall and the need for family belonging.
These winds come to us
from thousands of years of Indian heritage.
They come to us
with a language older than language itself.
The soul
of the earth is in these winds, the soul
of the universe.
Breathe in
the October air
and remember who you are.
You’re not the name you go by.
You’re something
far
more
beautiful.
