Fall in the Adirondacks

My dog is asleep in the pine beds

And beyond before the soap bubbles of tots

Wee Charlie snorts over a toy and sinks her fangs in it

With a sweep of his hand Tyler rakes for kindling

While Ashley laughs in a coonskin cap

And Laura looks candlelit over a map

The fires are breathing and speaking hot languages

Tinkling and whispering musty smells and phantoms

Tickle the cricketing trees that sing over camping Adirondacks

Whiskey and smoke and songs and folk

Offering echoes in the dark

As the logs fall in the smouldering coals

And 20 years ago to the day the towers did the same

I look up and my dog is still sleeping