Leaves drip their red and orange puddles
on the grass. I drive west down Beacon Street.
November’s sun glazes the clouds—
steel-gray bundles
that hold down the horizon
as if tethered by blue ribbon.
A garnet suture binds sky to earth.
From the car radio the trumpet strains
of The Times of Harvey Milk wander like smoke
seeking its unfiltered cigarette.
The music reaches into the round window
of my cochlea, squeezing as if my heart
could be found there. It’s late.
I squint through the windshield at the road ahead,
at shredded remnants of this tenuous day.
If the sun makes a sound as it sets in November,
it is a trumpet, wailing.
–
Anastasia Vassos is the author of Nike Adjusting Her Sandal (Nixes Mate, 2021). Her chapbook The Lesser-Known Riddle of the Sphinx was a finalist for the 2021 Two Sylvias Chapbook Prize. She is a reader for Lily Poetry Review, speaks three languages, and is a long-distance cyclist.