“in the seedlings, beauty's grace, a faith”

The Poem

Golden - Sonia Gernes

for my parent's fiftieth anniversary

In the old photographs, it is always autumn.
Colors fade to the sepia of remembered thought:
my mother in a flapper dress, my father
proud beside the Model A. They glow
in the light of dreams that I can never know.

What did they think of that autumn
they climbed into the photograph of bride & groom?
That love would conquer?—the Depression yield
more than its tart and scanty fruit?
In a season of scarceness, the bitter root

of her father's death fresh within the house,
they strode from the church believing
in sunlight—the prairie ringing for them,
the October trees all aflame with praise.
Good farmers, they knew how to raise

the future, a steady hand on each day's plow,
patience in the fallow fields, a table
big enough for all who'd need it, hope
in the seedlings, beauty's grace, a faith
that is the opposite of winter's death.

This autumn, I would take the color
of that triumph, the bright praise of trees.
the harvest secure in the heart's high bins;
I would make of them a portrait fit to hold
through time: these trees, these lives, this gold.

The Beverage
Chaider

MORE CHAI CONTENT. I could hear you all begging for it. AUTUMN CHAI CONTENT. Okay, so a couple years ago, I was living near this really good cafe (A Baked Joint, if you’re into it), and they had this thing. CHAIDER. It was a revelation for me. AUTUMN IN A LARGE MUG. It is a chai latte married to hot cider. An incredibly sexy couple. Chaider (chai + cider, get it???) is also very easy to make at home, especially if you purchased last week’s recommendation of Oregon Chai. Steam some chai and milk (or cream if you’re nasty (I mean this as a song reference, it’s not nasty-like-gross, it’s delicious)) and cider together in a frother. Or on the stove. Or in the microwave. I don’t know what you’re about. All you need is chai, pressed cider, and some kind of milk. So easy. Worth it.