Marking Off the Calendar

above my desk    as usual at least a week behind lining through past days     like wisps of breath    silence of bat's wings     marking through the 27th I remember today's my wedding anniversary    startled     past three anniversaries now   died on April fool's day    now there's the laugh     my purple marker crossing through the 27th.       reminded you always had to remind me    when the date was coming up     stumbling over lost love    audacity of the inevitable     nearly incoherent like the tall maple tree in the front yard   leaves now beginning to fall    over abundant madder yellows    brilliant reds     taupe browns     more than the stunned eye can take in    admiring them together     labor of every fall's spent leaves    reformatted to spring's garden soil in the compost heap    another August 27th marked off