Purification

A life fits like a puzzle piece

into the world apocalyptic now

since that mid-September day

my humbled knee walks broken

on pavement too hard for comfort

my youngest son flies to Amsterdam

to leave me uprooted in the new world

autumn color begins to revel

against the green hayfield and clouds

gather in monstrously beautiful

mountains of charcoal and white

while in New York the air still

smells acrid at the heart of capitalism

and each soul dead or alive

tries to awaken into what is evolving

as change both instantaneous

and long-term drifts among us

within the old habits of life as usual

Susie Patlove