Old Woman’s Lament in Autumn

--Rae Armantrout

for WCW

Sorrow is my corner store

where jack-o’-lantern balloons

get high on the last helium.

The endcap is gold today

with numbered bags

of Werther’s Original.

No one is Werther.

Last night a newscaster

mentioned an “elderly victim.”

Don’t call me that.

I’m old

and obdurate.