growing thin

Sunday's costume
worn to bury the week
heft of hymns
turning to stone

in Vesper times, a begging –
please allow me
to grow faint
like remnants of rain

fading daisies –
this compass of departing
summer – darkness entering
by degrees

chicory and black-eyed Susans
brushing shins
and greening acorns
already letting go

what ransom paid
for October –
what permanence slips
like ballroom masks

time to inter
power
and company keep
of no one