Two Octets from Borthwick Avenue

borthwick ave octet #1

ironwood ringed with holly draped with ghostly
clematis by the house with its rainbow flag—

then the Japanese maple’s fragile carmine
leaves & a crabapple, its fruit overlooked,

so many small blackened bruises manifest
amidst red limbs’ yellow leaves— robin touches

down on a hawthorn, sun breaks out: on one low
bough a heart-shaped tin ornament spins & spins


◦    ◦    ◦


borthwick ave octet #2


within its circle of pavers the lily
magnolia’s catkins form a candelabra

without heat; within its circle rosemary
gathers fallen brown leaves: so much to recall—

a brass kusari doi hangs from a soffit
near a wooden gate with crescent & circles

cut out—at avenue’s end, spray-painted gold,
the canoe’s suspended from a water birch



Jack Hayes
© 2016



11/28/16