Farewell To The Autumn

Farewell To The Autumn

This morning

I was idly watching -

Through the inert gas filled insulated 

Double pane glass sliding door

At

The brick red painted deck

The season is slowly turning

Colder and drier by the day

Now in the backyard 

All the trees are nude, baring their brittle

Gray barks and ribbed trunks -

Like the dry skin on my calf

A lone squirrel holding a dry bronze

Maple leaf between its tiny jaws

Perhaps for building home 

For its naked young -

It’s the only silent activity 

I notice from here

But the sour morning mood

And the leady overcast day

Got suddenly lighted 

And buoyed

By a shy blue jay

Pecking at the abandoned pots.

The dried pumpkin vine on the

Electric-blue painted

Wooden parapet appeared inviting too -  

To

The feathered darlings

With open heart; with its stretched out banner

Of large dehydrated circular paper leaves.

The deck with the leftover autumn 

Crispy-potato-chip-like dry leaves

(It)

Is a bit disconcerting to the

Civilized eye with its own rules 

And scales

Of beauty, symmetry, and cleanliness.

Yet

The crested blue jay

And

A pair of slate-colored juncos

Tucking at the dry amaranth seeds

What a glorious morning sight!

Just across the glass door

On the deck we’ve three winged guests

If an average person looks

At our deck – he wouldn’t approve

There is disorder everywhere

The plastic pots from the summer

Kitchen garden

Traces of successful eggplant growth

And a big blue bin with leftovers from

The pumpkin vine

The straw-like rope still hanging 

And piles of dried maple leaves

Yet

There is beauty all around

A beauty sensed by the inner eye

It only got enhanced by my

Avian visitors

You don’t need binoculars

To look at these lovely birds, up so close they’re

There, standing in our warm home

We saw ‘em all

A small downy woodpecker 

The blue jay and the migrating junco couple

Heaven is not what you think,

Dream, or design. 

Heaven happens with what you’ve

With what’s available now

Right now, in front of you

When all life is peaceful around

When nature bears

The weight of seasons without complaint;

Sadly

Man cannot adjust

And live without discordance

And time is slipping away fast

The juncos tell me winter

Is almost here.  © 2020 by the author