Is upon me now:
Of plowed old corn
Turned beneath the soil,
Disheveled roots clawing at sky
Of seagulls, far inland,
Crying "Scavenge!"
Out on lonely fields,
And smoking brush smouldering
Useless now, for human needs,
Hazing a clouded sky,
Of chilling, two-wheeled rides,
The windblown miles rushing
Past towns and scattered farms,
Of fetid morning steam
Rising thick above the lakes
Hunters crouching,
Of calls rising from the mud,
Flaring foolish ducks
Swooping low to their own harvest.
We have not deeply thought
Just yet, of coming snow,
We, in this cloven spot in time;
While all around us
Leaves slip their summer greens,
To dress in colors bright,
While migrant birds begin to keen
For warmer, bluer skies.
I sense that Autumn has begun,
And I am discontent;
My garden's done its annual run:
Potatoes, scarred and round are dug,
Tomatoes in and canned,
Nearly leafless, blood-red beets
Stand their pockmarked rows;
Onions dry in braided twists.
New Winter's not a long way off,
Though Autumn's looking bright,
And sadness makes impossible to doff
That "certain slant (our Emily once said) of light,"
So I must find a quiet corner soft,
And I must dream somehow...
Awake,
Asleep,
The scent of autumn
Is upon me now.