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
