Another Autumn

OK, so I'm rushing things a bit ... but I've been thinking of autumn a lot lately ... in the midst of summer's sizzling temperatures.

Autumn brings some slight moderation of temperatures, at least ... but it also brings on some of my favorite colors as the trees begin their autumn parade ... displaying their changing leaves up and down the streets ... and across the countryside.

Autumn brings back memories of those hills where I grew up ... hills laden with hickory trees ... oaks ... walnut trees ... sassafras ... sumac ... oh, what a parade that was, too!

Another thought which came to me this morning ... how great it would be if these postings came together seamlessly, instead of the way they sometimes do, particularly when time is short.

I should have known, with a doctor's appointment this morning (routine, just routine), the posting would not go smoothly. And it didn't.

But here it is, finally (I hope). The poem:

ANOTHER AUTUMN

Change has boomed

along quiet avenues

where great, green

hulking symbols

of summer loitered,

visages burnished now

into fiery displays

that climb and swoop,

zoom and explode.

And who could go

kicking through

the crinkling swirl

on the sidewalks

underneath them

without being just

a little pumped up

about it all?

© 1998

(originally published in Capper's)

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Today's word: visages