I felt it as soon as I stepped outside this morning.
The crispness of the cold.
The pumpkins.
The dunking game.
The funnel cakes.
The derby exhaust.
The chicken on a stick.

I drove in the late morning sun, looking at each person in the cars I passed.
“Do you feel it too?” I asked from my car.
God
I feel so alive

Why the fall?
Why the death of the trees?
Why in the moment when everything falls apart,
Do I feel so alive?

It slaps me in the face
From my car window
The last mowed lawn of the season.
The mums.
The apple pies.
The wilting goldenrods.

Maybe it’s the same wind from that time I left a bad relationship.
When I left school.
When I came back home.
When we drove county roads
Screaming songs through our teeth

That’s it!
The smoke from our cigarettes
Our carbon dioxide
The carbon monoxide
Recycled back around
Around the world
Back into my lungs
Through my car window
To kill me slowly
Again.