Prayer for Another October

--Ace Boggess

       

Lord, grant me two Octobers in a row:

the mild cold & slightly-windy mostly-calm,

rain gray that heightens love

for color—violent flicks of electric sparks

bursting through the woods like daytime will-

o-wisps. Yes, provide me

a few more jacks-o-lantern, children

in their ugly masks to cover up their ugliness, &

candy. One extra whisper of decadence

mid-autumn peddles—the indiscrete seductions.

I'd gladly give up February with its lies &

dead time trapped in a prison of quiet.

I could live with several fewer Augusts,

too, pressing down like schoolyard bullies,

pummeling with their fists like flames.

O Wandering Artisan, how it humbles me

to confess that I desire this.

Want is want, & mine is

for those hours when eyes & skin

share equal pleasure sense, sniffing scents

of chocolate freshly torn from foil,

tasting the sugared peanut butter &

wafers caked in caramel. Let me tremble

against the breeze as I walk a riverbank

at night, giving & receiving stories,

hours I might be myself & not.