BEAUTY OF THE EQUINOX

A late sunrise usher’s in
autumn’s equinox

Last of tomatoes are picked
and preserved for winter

Temperature is below forty
first time since last spring

Sun’s early rays warm house
and soul this lovely morn

It’s quiet here with cows gone
to winter pasture

I catch my breath from summer’s
last hectic rush to harvest

Yet, there’s always something
unpredictable

We moved horses to the south paddock
the day before a lightning storm

A sixteen-hand gelding named Dutch
is killed by lightning strike

We bury him in the pasture
next to the spot he fell

in shadow of a giant wind tower,
within sight of a dozen more

Other horses avoid his burial mound
instinctively knowing a taboo

Even amid sorrow I want to tell
of this equinox morning’s beauty

Lin Marshall Brummels earned a BA from the University of Nebraska and a MS from Syracuse University. Brummels has poems in journals, magazines, and anthologies. Her poetry chapbooks are “Cottonwood Strong” and “Hard Times,” 2016 Nebraska Book Award winner. Her book of poems, “A Quilted Landscape,” was published in 2021.