October Comes on a Scarecrow’s Head

~ Audrey Blanco

October comes on a scarecrow’s head
With wheat fields fenced by maple trees
Whose leaves coerce to cocooned reds
Returning a gaze the scarecrow lead.

With dusk and dawn upon its wings
The crow releases an eager leaf
Like a spark upon a fire’s fringe
Left to the wind for slow waltzing.

And the wind wisps beneath the skirts
Of the wheat fields, tickled and blushing,
Blushing the amber of a baker’s hearth—
The crow a shadow beyond the earth.