The doomed box elder tree and it hale neighbor, the five-trunk silver maple in 2001. This year it is a little more ragged but still hanging in. It hasn't even begun to shed its leaves this year.
It’s the Autumnal Equinox. Three years ago in a grey dawn as I went out to retrieve the newspaper from the driveway I was inspired.
Equinox Eve Morn
September 21, 2021
Murfin Estate
Crystal Lake
The first few leaves flutter down
from the old, slowly dying Boxelder
in the breaking grey light of dawn,
most of the thinning leaves not yet turned.
The vigorous five-trunk silver maple
whose crown enlaces it
has not even begun to turn
nor have any of the other trees
on our small lot.
A wind from the far-off Lake
breaks yesterday’s heat and humidity,
on cue the seasons are shifting.
Like that old junk tree
I can feel myself dropping my own leaves
tentatively but surely.
My time, too, is slipping away.
—Patrick Murfin
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