Sunflower dying into the sky

It was a long climb out of the soil.
She counted off whole continents
as she lifted each foot,
imagined her dark years falling away like husks.
--Naomi Shihab Nye.

This morning clouds brought in autumn the way a tired woman brings in the washing, crammed into a clean heap, smelling of grass and memory.

Sign on a telephone pole: "Coyote on Savier Street today, 5 a.m. Watch your cats! 8/19"