preparing for snow

One more piece from GENTIAN:

gaunt swimmers ransomed

slip across the moat to autumntime
shoeless aught in their pockets
dumb pleas too slight for hearing—
for harebell and jessamine
capering tipplers humming through the chamber of august
to hallow

*

docile spectres
their clocks stealing humbler and softer ticks
sweep the meadows
scooping out earth’s last pearls

*

harebell’s and jessamine’s cloaks fall off—
slashes of yellow and purple
against dun

*

arrange yourselves for winter—
snow outweighs grasses—
the fields shooken down—