256.   IT'S ALL GRAY Alone at my desk,  I stare out the window, watch two gray squirrels run up the oak tree, round and round against rough gray bark. Rain drops splotch the glass, patter loudly in the gutter, swirl into the downspout. No black or white, only gray sky, gray day, gray me. *comments welcome

  255. DRIVING TO SIBERIA A sufficiency of living gleams in her pale blue eyes, old virtues fluttering. She prepares to write, ideas popping like soapy bubbles. A wondrous variety of choices explode,  then her train of thought is interrupted, again. Words are lost almost as soon  as she finds them. Feeling old, she won't know who she is until she gets there. *comments welcome

  254. FOR KATIE Let me come back as bird song at break of day, flower petals floating on fresh summer breezes, tumbling maple leaves, blown by cool autumn winds, delicate snowflakes crowding the chilled air. Let me be all of them, with you still, the way I’ve always been. Just think of me, close your eyes, rest in the moment, and I’ll be there, loving you forever. *comments welcome

253. WHEN NIGHT BECOMES DAY The early sky wakes, stretches luxuriously in a robe of pale pink salmon, glows brighter as puffy clouds  appear against the blank palette  of dawn, blushing peach and coral. The early breeze calms and warm colors vanish into the blue as the sky awaits its  main attraction. *comments welcome

252.  FROST WARNING TONIGHT The sweltering afternoons of summer have slipped into lingering  autumn nights and chilly mornings, the last of the purple phlox blooms beside the footpath, sumac and sugar maple  flame scarlet and gold along the River Road and the homeless man, who lived at the park bench near Eustis Street the whole month of August  and part of September, has packed his small sack of belongings and moved on. *comments welcome NOTES: No frost warnings yet. Poetic license, I guess!

against darkest night  the streetlight's yellow-eyed glare stands as watchman

250.  showy leaves scatter autumn flaunts her new wardrobe earth puts on a show *comments welcome