Days of Awe

Hm . . . Memorable . . . what? (He peers closer.) Equinox, memorable equinox. (He raises his head, stares blankly front. Puzzled.) Memorable equinox? . . . (Pause. He shrugs his head shoulders, peers again at ledger, reads.) Farewell to–(he turns the page)–love.
– Samuel Beckett, Krapp’s Last Tape

In Florida, autumn came
as a change in the light
in late afternoon,
around mid-October.
I hardly noticed it
until I was nineteen.
A girlfriend left me.
I wrote a poem, ephemeral
as the love it mourned.

At sixty, autumn seems
like that last song
sung by Dave Guard’s Trio
(later covered by Sinatra):
vintage wine, days decreasing.

And now, in Brooklyn
(I’ve lived life backwards:
Florida, Manhattan, Brooklyn),
an older voice whispers
gently, to my gentile ears,
L’shanah tovah.

Claude Scales
(First published in Self-Absorbed Boomer, September 26. 2006.)

3 Responses to Days of Awe

  1. DemNoMore September 29, 2008 at 7:51 pm #

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MGT_cSi7Rs

  2. golden days September 30, 2008 at 12:14 am #

    thank you claude…and right back atya..A Happy Sweet New Year

  3. HDEB September 30, 2008 at 8:52 am #

    Wishing all a happy and healthy year to come.