Splendid Bodies

by Pavel Chichikov

In late October leaves change color

Crimson bloody, bronze and gold,

Spectacular a forest full

If people did when they grew old,

Like walking through a holy room

Where death did not decay but bloom,

A hall of gold, a hall of bronze

A hall of dawn and setting suns,

And when the wind had thrown them down

Such splendid bodies on the ground

(See Pavel's new book, Mysteries and Stations, here.)