Fall Minds / Start From Scratch – Poems by MICHAEL O’SHAUGHNESSY

 

FALL MINDS

 

Wet asphalt sparkling under the white sky.

There is a yawn of blue.

 

Sometimes fall is brighter than summer,

more alive with moisture and energy.

Some things are dying, but many things end like fireworks.

 

We can be categorized in many ways.

Let’s divide us into:

the standing, the sitting and the reclining.

Then let us separate into:

summer minds, winter minds, spring minds, fall minds.

 

You’re going to yawn. You’re going to stretch your eyes.

 

—

 

START FROM SCRATCH

 

small kindergarten words

primary colors

circles

squares.

 

the sun will

always shine.

 

the grass is

always green.

 

the faces

always smiling.

 

no.

 

let’s lean forward

catch a good wind

steer towards dips

and inclines.

 

we’ll see it

all again

at the end.

 

but we’re not

at the end

yet.

 

believe me,

we’re

not.

---

***

Michael O’Shaughnessy co-edited a literary zine in the ’90s called Report to Hell. From 2007-2010, he and his wife wrote a gonzo cooking column called “In the Sellwood Kitchen” for a neighborhood newspaper in Portland, Oregon. He runs a semi-fictional net label called Sleeping Brothers Records, releasing lo- to mid-fi albums recorded over the last 30 years by a small circle of friends. He lives with his wife in Southern California. You can find him on Twitter at @mroshaugh.