Two Autumn Portraits

I.

I want to ride off
into the welcoming hills,
flashing colors, leaves
like quiet fireworks
against a cement sky—-
get lost in the shadows
disappear for a time
into anonymous oblivion
answer to no one
feel my power—-
summer still in my legs
as I spin silver prayer wheels
to a hymn of wind, road
and sky.


II.

The hope of one green branch,
bent so many times,
still full of life—-
water flows and rises,
will and fire within cells.
Not brittle, leafless and dead,
a scratchy appendage,
but still supple, growing,
reaching who knows where,
leaves turned sunward--
heliotropic—-reaching
by feel, not sound or sight.