This poem was published in The Daily Sun, November 23, 2025

Janet M. Gibson

MY OCTOBER ROADTRIP

Fall colors, like an opened Crayola 64 box,

line the roadways of Iowa, Missouri, Tennessee, Alabama, and Georgia--

shades of sage green, yellow ochre, cadmium red, lemon lime, burnt sienna, and goldenrod--

a bright yellow orb in a cerulean blue sky spotted by mashed-potato clouds

the Great Sculptor brushed with a fork, strewing breezy wisps.

Road ribbons wrap the land in gray, silver, slate, and charcoal,

and intersecting strips of rustic orange clay reveal rural roads leading to houses unseen,

behind these frontline tree sentinels, brave-faced a few weeks longer.

I will not see the changing of the guard, as all is green in palm-tree Florida.

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