It’s October again
Frock-tober
Shock-tober<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We’re stripping back layers
And staring, surprised, at each other
in the sunshine
How did we get here?
If you had asked me
(you should have asked me)
It was chilly May
like
yesterday<\/p>\n\n\n\n
No wait
Yesterday I was twenty-two
And I could still tie my shoelaces
without groaning<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And the day before that
I was skipping
stones in a river, class on Tuesday afternoons
down the street I lived on
with my budgerigar and disillusioned dog<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And my grandparents were still alive
And my legs were brown
And I knew my own name<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And I skipped
back and forth across the seasons
like Yeats’s long-legged fly upon the stream<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Seasons turn quickly now
turning upon silence
if you tell me it’s October<\/p>\n\n\n\n
again<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I give myself
and my child’s brown legs
and my white hairs
and my shoelaces
up to it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It’s October againFrock-toberShock-tober We’re stripping back layersAnd staring, surprised, at each otherin the sunshineHow did we get here?If you had asked me(you should have asked …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":2604,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_wpcom_ai_launchpad_first_post":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"{title}\n\n{excerpt}\n\n{url}","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[19],"tags":[180,8,181,21,179],"class_list":["post-2603","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-poetry","tag-childhood","tag-mountain-ash-chapter","tag-october","tag-poetry","tag-time"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/sff1uY-october","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":339,"url":"https:\/\/mountainashchapter.com.au\/?p=339","url_meta":{"origin":2603,"position":0},"title":"beginnings are endings are beginnings again","author":"Teresa Lawler","date":"November 19, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Lockdown is over now. 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