Vincent Hostak
November 8 2026
Leaning into Fall, do the linden trees think leaves are dispensable?
They light up the ground as much
as the fire of flowers that preceded them
and it is one I can walk through safely.
I can wade in a sea of leaves into a circle of the tree’s lost shade.
From here, I can see its many friends,
each just as naked with a sparkling moat below
rising above their absent summer shadows.
The leaves of the linden trees, released, have their own lives now.
With a second dose of gravity they
scuttle down the hill, join a new ensemble which
grips the curb, hides from the wind, sings more crisply
Than in times they spent greening on long limbs, clapping noisily.
Old lindens close enough to be lovers, root
beyond their golden moats of leaves. Roots moist
with mycorrhiza reach out, touching tenderly and indispensably.
Vincent Hostak is a writer and media producer from Texas now living with his family and faithful canine, Lola, near the Front Range of Colorado. His recently published poems are found in the journals The Dewdrop (Vanessa Able, Editor-In-Chief), Sonder Midwest, The Langdon Review of the Arts in Texas, and the Texas Poetry Assignment. His contributions also appear in the anthologies The 30th Annual Poetry Ink Anthology (Moonstone Arts, Philadelphia, 2025), Lone Star Poetry, and The Senior Class-100 Poets on Aging (Lamar University Press, Laurence Musgrove, Editor). His podcast on classic and contemporary poetry, and the novel ways it reaches audiences, relaunches in 2026.
