AUTUMN
Now that autumn is here,
the flowers and the plants
give themselves to us
for winter will not need them.
The pumpkins are rusty color
with brown and green patches.
They are ripe.
Ripe is such a good word.
I like to say it.
All the plants are ripe
and beautiful with color
now that autumn is here.
Soon my mother will go
to the mountains
to gather plants for dyes,
and plants for food,
and plants for medicine.
If I were bigger
she would take me with her.
She does take me
when we go
to places near the hogan.
After heavy frost
my father will go
to the mountains
to gather the pinyons.
This year he will go without us.
He will go with some other men
in a truck
that belongs to the trader.
My mother does not like this.
She thinks
my father should take us
with him
when he goes for pinyons.
