The Last Real Town 

David Fadem

One day,
In The Last Real Town,
In the last real October,
It will be the 31st—a Friday.
And through some sympathetic working of the universe,
All will open their eyes to a ceiling above.
And hate will have not creeped under the pillows
Of all the happy people. 

One day,
In The Last Real Town in the last real October,
The children will gaze in wonderment
At the swirling, golden leaves
That fall as if they are suspended by silks 
(they take all the time in the world)
In time,
Long hours of classes and coloring sheets,
They will don their masks
When the sun casts the streets in amber.

And just miles away,
The forests will be filled
With the crunch of fallen foliage
As young couples trot through the maze of sycamore and maple—
Blissfully present
Like playful revenants.

The sun sets, 
One last supernova of peach and marigold
Before the revelry takes on its dying form
(exchanged candy and movies
more camp than horror)

Time was not there to turn the calendar page
But it would have read November 1st.
And the moon would have been awake
In the youthful morning sky
But the candy will lie uneaten —
The parties uncleaned
Because The Last Real Town
Didn’t want to die a slow, warm death.
So it picked a day. 

David Fadem is a 2nd-year student at the Lehigh Valley Charter High School for the Arts, where he majors in Literary Arts and specializes in poetry. He enjoys cooking, taking walks in the cold, and listening to folk music.

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• SLV 2023 Table of Contents
• Voices of the Valley – Alphabetic List of Authors
• Sustainable Lehigh Valley booklet

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