You trace the cover with dirt-stained thumb
Quercus alba pressed in gum
Pages hold the root and rhizome
Autumn writes in chromium
Ticket stubs for Phalaris grass
Carbon dated fossil class
Roller coaster loops mapped in ink
Where the Drosera catch and drink
The notebook knows what the soil remembers
September dies in burnt umber
You read the rings of a closed down park
Written in root and lichen mark
Funeral wreath of Solidago
Grows where cotton candy snow
Carousel horses sink in loam
Mycorrhizal threads bring home
The notebook knows what the soil remembers
September dies in burnt umber
You read the rings of a closed down park
Written in root and lichen mark
Lignin breaks to humus dark
Nature writes her signature mark
You pocket the book as light retreats
Root systems map the empty seats
Ferris wheel spokes grow fungal lace
Time measured in decay's slow pace
You catalog each genus, species
Autumn's taxonomic thesis
The leather softens, drinks the rain
Like xylem pulls through vascular vein
You close the cover, press it deep
Where the dormant roots will sleep
The notebook knows what the soil remembers
September dies in burnt umber
You read the rings of a closed down park
Written in root and lichen mark
The notebook knows what the soil remembers
September dies in burnt umber
You read the rings of a closed down park
Written in root and lichen mark
The notebook knows what the soil remembers
Leather and loam in your calloused palm
Leather and loam in your calloused palm
You walk home through the Acer saccharum
