Autumn

Rebecca Duncan

Summer retreats

Days, shadows shorten

Suddenly shy, the sun

Slips behind clouds

Proliferate in the advancing

Autumn skies

 

Abbreviated afternoons produce

Pools of light, scant and fleeting

Trees cast off

Leaves indiscriminately

Leaving their skeletal remains

 

Birds take leave

Rabbits go to ground

Insects seek shelter

Silence settles

 

Green plant stalks swoon

Bend towards cold earth

Lose their lives overnight

Shrivel to brown

 

Pumpkins appear on porches

Dried corn stocks lean on

Bales of hay scattered in yards

Nature’s necessary shedding

Begins