Fall in E Major by Ashley Taylor

The fields that nurture people,

as well as golden corn and winter wheat,

surround houses like a brown blanket

after combines shift the soil.

Cows sing into the twilight,

after farmers have gone to bed, 

swishing grass between their legs 

as deer unfold themselves from swaying trees.

Does dance through pastures while Bucks

leap behind, antlers scraping sky.

Coyotes strike up a harmony, 

their laughter floating like the stars

underneath a Harvest Moon.

Owls swoop, wheel a hush upon the land,

with wings like heaven and talons like hell.

Cows low to herald the returning sun, 

coaxing birds to flock in a periwinkle sky.

Coyotes evaporate, like dew;

Deer bow back to lay their heads

where night still clings among the trees, under sheltering leaves.

The warm and living earth breathes life into the day,

farmers waking to shift the soil again,

mixing the nighttime song with the clay.