The Furnace Checked? Draughts Caulked? Soup Bubbling?

from "Notes from Madoo"
in the East Hampton Star, October 31, 2009
Robert Dash

Exorbitant autumn, you take to dying far too long/turning green gold, ruby, citron/abscided leaves strewing more color than
June/you funny season, some crocuses bounce up again/sap falls where once it fountained/you begin to topple/barging winds are in from the north/branches, leaves, sap berries, nuts, all fall/crops are pulled, cover sown, much tilling to be done by frost heave/plenty leads to sorrow/abundance to lean/gifts go so to redistribute/love is not for one place or time/the inch of an hour is miles from its beginning/days diminish/darkness grows/ and then the wind/and then the cold/blue shadows/no odor/thin air/gray your face/your hair/black dogs of ocean waves howl/everything covered is bare/shapes pitiful to see/see, that is where lightning struck where wind wrenched off a branch/one tree on another fell/winter deer ate half the bark/or the mower gouged/saplings not staked grew askew/and there are always the sunlight’s decisive culls/the year of moths or locusts/the year of late frost/drought, heat, fire/nothing is left in the winter except winter/oldest time of the year/sky barely blue/the story of the year completed/no listeners remain/go home/stay warm/over and over/is the wood in?/the furnace checked?/draughts caulked?/soup bubbling?/extra socks and sweaters/don’t forget gloves and earmuffs/that long red scarf/the more layers the better/coffee with plenty of sugar/lady apples make fine clove apples/there’s nothing like that smell in winter/not even pine cones/puddings/brandied this, brandied that/and plenty of jams and pickles/is ice on the inside of the window/the door stuck?/the steps have melted and frozen a nasty, dingy white/the cat is cross/the dog full of twitching dreams/bruise-blue the catastrophes around you/stay inside/here is where you will be the whole of the long winter.