Autumn Blaze

Suzanne Morris

June 7, 2026

—for Carol Athey

You would have been gratified

to see my artist friend arrive

this morning

to set up her easel out

on the front drive,

a few feet from our prized

Autumn Blaze Maple. 

I still remember that day

we found the tree for sale

at the big nursery

in Nacogdoches

a giant among the

rows of gawky saplings,

its branches fulsome

and graceful,

how readily we exchanged 

an admiring glance:

Price was no object. 

We hauled the tree home

along with high hopes

in the back of the pickup truck

25 miles of me watching

through the back window

anxious as a new mother as we

bumped along the highway,

fledgling maple leaves

flying off in the wind.

That was six autumns ago,

or has it been seven now?

The Autumn Blaze Maple

is the only one of all our trees

turning colors this year

as I remarked to the artist yesterday.

This morning she has

loaded up her easel in the

trunk of her car, and

come to see for herself.

I peer over her shoulder

as she dunks a large brush in water

then dredges up pigment

in various colors

her focus shifting from

tree to palette to picture plane,

her brush becoming

a magic wand:

diving, lifting, then diving again

conjuring up a shimmering montage

of green, russet, sienna and umber

the wet colors

blending into

the promise of leafy contours.

She will leave

this layer of paint

to dry for a day or two

then apply more color

to bring out the depth and richness

she envisioned when she began

as we began, envisioning

how stately the tree 

would look one day

rising nearby our front drive,

but never envisioning your

not living long enough to

peer with me over the shoulder

of the artist

as she took up her brush

to paint it.

Before becoming a poet, Suzanne Morris was a novelist, with eight published works between 1976 and 2016.  Many of her early poems were featured in her fiction, to advance the underlying themes.  Since 2020, she has contributed poems to several anthologies, and has been published at a variety of online poetry journals, including The Texas Poetry Assignment.  A native Houstonian, Ms. Morris has resided in Cherokee County for 17 years.