Equinox

It is too late in the year to water the flowers.
I let them dry and char under the wheel of light.

I envy the leaves of the Rosy Periwinkle,
still growing as day stills into fresh parchment.

At night, the crickets and locusts are in cahoots,
their song sizzling like a live wire, a spark to light the sky.

I smell wood smoke and damp weed.
A dark chirp, renegade as a storm of leaves.

When the day rises, I reinvent the sun,
dawn of ironweed and stubby brush.

A deer tiptoes across my brow.
They tell me it's the age of mums.

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Esther Sadoff currently lives in Columbus, Ohio, where she teaches English to gifted and talented middle school students. She has a bachelor’s degree from Sarah Lawrence College where she studied literature as well as a Master of Education from The Ohio State University. Her poems have been featured or are forthcoming in Passengers Journal, SWWIM Every Day, Marathon Literary Review, Sunspot Literary Journal, West Trade Review, River Mouth Review, and Penultimate Peanut, as well as other publications.