Autumn Rain Meditations

rain thumping
on shingles white
white skies and rain thick
as London fog so the evergreens
fade in the background like bagpipes
collapsing under the arm of
a graying man playing alone
against pale misty skies over
a slate lake placid daybreak
and the pipes mellow like
a painted dancing snake
golden metallic on a black resin
pottery shard resting in the hand
of a sturdy khakied man in 1923
at an Egyptian excavation site
pick axes pick pick clack on rock
and stone dusty like his pocket
watch once gold metallic as a tooth cap
in the dry mouth of a hallow country man
fishing on a dock alone in the early morning--
or is it the late night? it's still dark after all--
humming something low and rusty
as metal wheels on cobblestones
in old London mildewed as the rotting wood
of old houses once whitewashed as autumn rain