Ambulatory Autumn: Part The Third

Morphism, 

almost suggestive

The Flaneur went browsing

for costumery and décor

grazing on the grass is a gas

The uppermost stretch

of College avenue

in Oakland's Rockridge

The skies were still clouded

with the tragedy taking place

not far away

in the North Bay fires

A neighborhood

still colorful and fanciful

less eccentric than it was

once upon a time

The home prices

and the rents have

increased considerably in my

nearly forty years in town

More than a touch grand

these days

Memento Mori

A delightful part of town

nevertheless

The brides still wear white

Traditions

and old timey

California facades and

 civic substructures persist

A symbolic hold-out

from the Irish working class era

hereabouts

A door-knocker

attracts one indoors

One requires such macabre decorations
 this time of the year

when the fields are crisped and sere

A second-hand shop

resplendent with

gleefully morbid gee-gaws

and the makings for

 merry nocturnal

tomfoolery

All the spook junk

you can use

The contents of every

disgruntled kid's bedroom

 that the parents schlepped off

to the thrift shop

Who will I be

for all Hallow's Eve

An Irish fairy figure

costume might do

Then merely select

a mask to go with it

See how one looks

in the witchy black mirror

You're ready to

run outdoors

after dark

seeking candy

on jack-o-lantern

doorsteps

Or to haunt the

Eve of All Saints

in a manner to which

one is accustomed

Ornate tombstone,

the cross is a prayer

for resurrection

Time to re-open

 doors of perception

Into the slow motion

swirl of 

falling autumn

20 October 2017