When asters flower, first frost comes soon

As with all blossoms—they pass so quick

Nature wants us gone: mudslides, wildfires

earthquakes, the local flora turned poisonous

Perhaps for too long we’ve sidestepped

what is beyond our senses, all of science

It’s all so clear now—the air almost water

GRAHAM EVERETT, the recipient of the Walt Whitman Birthplace Poet of the Year for 2015, and the author of numerous small press collections of poetry, has relocated to Central Virginia, the cradle of the republic.