Readings in Contemporary Poetry

William Corbett


Nearing September


Mums and pumpkins
lush new berry canes berryless
old dry canes plucked
of starveling blackberries
the gull’s breast white
as massed fair weather clouds
how still a source joy is
piano bopping notes thrown
like gravel under the tenor’s
chesty swagger, afternoon light
equal over all, fading gold
crossed by gull shadow
whose grandparents arrived
in a 1930s hurricane
effortless, instantaneous
agreeable fortune of life

© 2000 William Corbett

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