Fall in the Borderlands

The photos are mine and of the plant Pseudognaphalium leucocephalum. It sure is nice to have some white flowers mixed in with the oceans of yellow flowering Astereaceae species that cover the land and roadsides.

I love fall. It’s my favorite season and in the borderlands it seems to last forever. So here is a poem I wrote many years ago about fall and that telltale breeze. Somethings never change. Thank goodness.

There’s a little breeze that comes in the fall,

And it’s full of wonderful smells that help me recall.

Oh, I smell dry grasses or moist canyons sometimes

And in the evening I’m sure that I can smell pines.

But my favorite odors that come in the air

Create something some dude called memoire involontaire.

I swear I can smell my father on that day when he hugged me.

It was a rare day and that often has bugged me.

Oh, I smell my lover snug in a tent.

I think that was in the Gila, yeah, that’s where we went.

I remember our kids giggling that night ‘fore we slept

and thinking, “You’ve done something right, Petey” and I quietly wept

Wait, I smell our old truck, now that’s an odor that I miss,

Old oil and upholstery with a hint of cat piss

That truck took us everywhere and I bet we looked like the Joads

With our pots and our pans rattling down those forest roads.

Aieeee, Petey come out of the breeze,

You’re driving us crazy with your olfactories!

I’m sorry, I’m sorry, but let me add just one more,

The smell of the desert, now that I adore