Coat

On day seventeen

every chair on the terrace

wears a coat of frost.

Snowflakes

Sometime after dawn

the first of many snowflakes

start to coat the oak.

Even during rain

the front-porch jack-o’-lantern

wears a coat of dust.

Deepening autumn—

the scarecrow in the garden

wears a coat of frost.

After spring planting,

the hem of the scarecrow’s coat

keeps unraveling.

late autumn downpour—

remembering my old dog

and his rain-soaked coat

An old wooden chair,

needing a new coat of paint,

wears cobwebs instead.