Ray Cicetti
Autumn in New Jersey
A Middle Eastern friend tells me autumn is unbearable here—
the morning chill, days in half-light two meager months of summer,
he says, and dreams for a return of summer's blinding heat.
He grimaces at his furnace's ping and clank—the sugar maple's
crimson blaze—hungry monarchs on the milkweed, a harbinger
of what's to come. In my country, he tells me, it's 95 degrees.
He finds no refuge in the blue cornflower, or the kettle of red-tailed hawks
over distant fields. He frowns at the cool canopy overhead,
prays for life to blossom again under sun-scorched days.
But raised in the beauty of each season's turn, I view these days
with wonder—the snap of October's air, blue rushing into blue—
the ruddy moon, full and low, over the broken hills.
Bio
Ray Cicetti is the author of "A Forest in His Pocket". His poems have been published in a variety of journals including, Tiferet, Exit 13, and Stillwater Review. Ray has also been a featured poet in various reading series. He currently lives in Mountain Lakes, New Jersey with his wife, Carolyn.