October Blue

It’s a beautiful world

and not simply because

the Lawrence sky is October blue

and a woman young enough to be my daughter

strolls down the sidewalk,

her belly stretching her pink T-shirt

while pushing her stroller,

her first-born child looking out;

and not because of the young college couple,

who chat as they cross my path,

the young woman,

her slender legs stretching

her shiny, black leggings,

her pink toenails dancing along

the sidewalk bricks;

or the middle-school girl,

who ties her water-splotched, maroon T-shirt

in a knot above her midriff,

and then dashes behind my bench

to clamber up a tree,

her rust-haired friend running behind,

hand to her bulging rosy cheeks,

only to spray the still green ground,

laughing, when she finally reaches the tree

which shelters her nimble friend.

Come to think of it,

that is all there is to it,

after all.