My Brother’s Favorite View

my brother’s favorite views
are where flooding brought
the marsh around the throats of trees
and stripped them bare as teeth-

i should have known
when he told me that.

but then i felt the autumn
swell around us again;
we were small and we
took my sleds out before the first snow.
he led me to a hill he knew
where we could ride the dead leaves down
past the cemetery below-

i should have known then,
but i watched him slide away,
to be swallowed by the trees.