Nature’s Autumn Jazz Tune

Jasper Francis Cropsey, Autumn Landscape

Wednesday

The leaves in Tennessee’s Southern Cumberland Mountains are currently in full-change mode, sending me to a poem by my father that I’ve shared in past. Enjoy!

Maple Dance

By Scott Bates

We watch the show
 From our kitchen window–

 Our maple tree’s
 Annual striptease.

 She shimmies
 In the autumn breeze.

 Everything glows
 In the golden sun,

 Everything goes
 Till the dance is done–

 Every leaf
 Of her lamé sheath,

 Every veil
 In the woodwind’s wail,

 Until she’s bare
 In the whistling air

 Her arms held high
 To the rocking sky

 As slender
 In her Giacometti splendor

 As a lightning rod
 For the thunder god

 Who comes
 With his drums,

 His flashing cymbal,
 His rimshot hail,

 His wirebrush snow,
 His white Peugeot,

 To take her
 To his theatre

 Resplendent
 In her ermine fur.

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