IT WAS MAGIC, IF ONLY FOR A MOMENT

I tasted autumn tonight
though it's only the middle of summer,
the night was cool and soft,
a faint trace of woodsmoke,
reminiscent of burning leaves.
Overhead, dark gray cloud shadows
on the breeze, drifting, creeping past
the moon,
high and round and haunting.
The night embraced me with
the feel of that September,
thoughts and emotions and memories
of you flared in my heart
and soothed my ragged soul,
for a moment I was back with you,
and I smiled from the inside out.

Then the illusion shattered
and it was only another
melancholy blue summer night
at two in the morning
and I was driving out of
your little town,
on my way home,
alone,
tired and missing you
more than ever.

(Leaving Franklin Grove, Illinois-
July 31, 1994)