It’s getting toward wintertime here in North Dakotaland, and this past week we enjoyed a couple of frosty mornings. These prompted me to share Matthew Brennan’s contribution to NDQ 90.3/4 which is almost on its way to the printer. It is a lovely reverie on the changing seasons that could very easily be set in my neighborhood.

Frosty Morning

Overnight a cold white fuzz has rimed the lawn.

In shade, the grass looks like an old man’s whiskers.
The sun’s slept in because the clocks have turned
again and fallen back into the shadows.
We knew the trees would lose beloved leaves
that yesterday still blazed in morning light,
lately ripened into reds and golds

radiating like a hearth. Now branches

are boney arms with no one close to hold.
Beyond their reach, a fleet of geese that padded
all month across our sunlit pond is fully
outspread in symmetry against the sky.
They’re heading for somewhere south, somewhere warm,
while staying cool to all they leave behind.

~

Matthew Brennan has published six books of poetry, including Snow in New York: New and Selected Poems (Lamar U. Literary Press, 2021). The End of the Road is due from Kelsay Books in 2024. His poems and criticism appear in Sewanee Review and New York Times Book Review.   

90.3/4