Falling walnuts, acorns
knock on pavement steps ahead
an older man out of time
in thick-soled walking shoes
from a big box store,
rambling in and out
sun shafts filtered
under huge October trees
through leaves on neighborhood streets
scattered with pine cones,
content now to boot them about
and ignore their mysteries,
imagine the fine bones, firm skin,
of the warm hand of the woman
who strolled with him
through the galleries of autumn,
and the usual cat on the jagged stone wall
that watched them