Autumn Sonata in Backyard

If I drink anymore iced tea I am going to blow my brains out on fallen leaves.I am going to get out my rake and build a pile of leaves so bigthat when I climb to the top with my daughterswe will see Mexico City and Paris.Here is the thing about Mexico City and Paris—they both have the Eiffel Tower.That’s the thing about New England in October,if you drink enough iced tea you can make The Tube in Londonand The Great Barrier Reef of Australiathat disappears as we talk. No worries.We can save Australia with our bent rakes.We can save Greenland from becoming greenand sometimes we can save the kids in China from the ugly orphanages of Shanghai.We can rake them up parents out of leaf piles,give them bowls of hot soup, and blue jeans from The Gap.It’s all about the work, the sweat under our sweaters,the long sweep followed by a succession of quick short sweepsfor the drought infected states of Iowa, Indiana, and Pakistan.Sometimes when I blow my brains out in autumnI go outside with my rake and don’t do a thing.I stand in the middle of the backyard and watch the leaves dance.Sometimes they are Baryshnikov and sometimes they are Beyoncé.Sometimes they come together in their own piles and forget they are leaves.They assume the constitution of my wife, kids, parents, sisters, friends,my best brother, Mike.I stand in front of all that colorful decay and think, this is love,this is love this has to be lovestill trying to figure out that there is no way to know anythingand then everything blows apart again so that the next morningI’m out there again, with my daughters,and we’re drinking iced tea, blowing our brains out,making more piles so big we can see Israel and Peru,and it’s The Leaning Tower of Pisa in Israel and Peru.The Leaning Tower of Pisa that steadies us straightand so we make the next pile, and the one after that,and the red and yellow one with a hint of greenthat we jump into and grab and throw up into the air shouting:the rain, the rain, the beautiful rain.