Autumn

1 What is sometimes called a tongue of flame or an arm extended burning is only the long red and orange branch of a green maple in early September   reaching into the greenest field out of the green woods   at the edge of which the birch trees appear a little tattered   tired of sustaining delicacy all through the hot summer   re- minding everyone (in our family) of a Russian song   a story by Chekhov   or my father 2 What is sometimes called a tongue of flame or an arm extended   burning is only the long red and orange branch of a green maple in early September   reaching into the greenest field out of the green woods   at the edge of which the birch trees appear a little tattered   tired of sustaining delicacy all through the hot summer   re- minding everyone (in our family) of a Russian song   a story by Chekhov or my father on his own lawn   standing beside his own wood in the United States of America   saying (in Russian) this birch is a lovely tree   but among the others somehow superficial