Cherryl Garner manages a small law office in South Carolina. Her deepest roots (and inspiration for her poetry) are in Alabama and the South. Her poetic interests lie in exploring family, landscape, the common, and the divine. Her work has been widely published and she recently finished writing her first full-length book of poems. In case you hadn’t noticed, let this poem inform you: fall has arrived.
Fall Makes Me a La La Girl
By Cherryl Garner
Fall makes me a la la girl.
I am gigglyduncey with new
foamy ladies shoes.
One salamander
eats my ants and hops
when I say, “hopplease.”
Leaves drop when I say so.
I’ll chop tops of all of you,
I will do, make you finally grow,
you reticent old growers,
I’ll dig you out from the
easy garden, snatch you
ragged, you non-bloomers.
This changes understands me,
makes me sniffy. My ears twitch
like possums I imagine do.
I want wind to rouse reluctance
with the change of axis spin.
I want it to blow me up
toward the closest atmosphere
like I am–I’m the right film thin.
This is so playful, happy and humorous. I start the day during the fall thinking of all the beautiful folliage I saw yesterday.