People talk.
Leaves fall,
they look at each other.
They stay up late
eat orange crackers in bed
crumbs and smudges
watch Grey's Anatomy
whisper a prayer.
Wear mint green cardigans.
People are walking,
in at least twelve
different directions.
There are bones
and ghosts everywhere.
Putting out candles
sliding windows open
hiding in other people's graves.
Our lives have been wasted.
When we were thrifty;
when we were noble.
How we love
to work with our hands.
Will next year be different?
Last year winter came
and went in the blink of an eye,
yet springtime shied away.
There's a truck drifting
into your lane on the highway.
A gun firing in an otherwise
quiet wooded field.
It sounds like autumn,
and the flowers are dying
It's October.
It's time for us to die.
-- Ringa Sunn
Ringa Sunn is a West Mifflin native who works as a barista during the day and stage-manages for local theatres at night. She lives in Squirrel Hill. Many writers featured in Chapter & Verse are guests of Prosody, produced by Jan Beatty and Ellen Wadey. Prosody airs every Tuesday at 7 p.m. on independent radio, WYEP 91.3 FM.
