Autumnal Quiz by Sara Callor

1. Name the hue of autumn leaves, the ones that blow across roads like scurrying mice in September, then press themselves to pavement after cold October rains.

a. Flagrant Beauty

b. Searing Melancholy

c. Metaphysical Conceit

d. Furtive Orange


2. What is the literal translation of the following phrase: a besieging atrophy of color occurs when the atmosphere can no longer sustain the splendor of autumn.

a. The world becomes too much.

b. Luscious green must be replaced by broken brown in order to restore order.

c. Even the chirps of birds carry tomes of tones too low to hear; ice is coming.

d. A berth narrow enough for fall lies in the moment between orange and red.


3. Memory is to reality as ________ is to equinox.

a. Opus

b. Fledgling

c. Flotsam

d. September

4. Celestial navigation in autumn is easy: count the number of heartbeats it takes for the line from ache to Orion to tighten, then continue breathing for said amount of beats.

a. true

b. false


5. When the mysterious echo of northerly winds scratches cutouts of maple, oak, and aspen into the soil, one should always:

a. Ask for provisions throughout what may be a long cold drought.

b. Lose the path of footprints made eons ago.

c. Consider the translucence of all echoes, and reach far into the well of memories for one with which to keep warm.


6. What is next?

a. Decide on an answer and follow it to the bittersweet end of winter.

b. Decide that there are no answers.

c.

Author bits:

Sara Callor is an MFA candidate at the Northwest Institute of Literary Arts.  She lives in Fort Collins, Colorado, where she works enough hours at her regular job to justify not writing more, or having any publication credits.