BENEATH AUTUMNAL SKIES

 

Beneath autumnal skies

The suns strength diminishes

With each passing day

Then foliage turns slowly

From green to gold

And finally, to red and brown

Before fluttering to earth

The gentle late summer breezes

Make them dance

And when breeze turns to raging storm

They’re sent swirling

As if court in some frenetic snow globe

The lucky ones escape this chaos

And ends their short lives

Trapped Beneath hedgerows

Or blown into quiet corners

The rest whirl like dervishes

Hither and thither

Until the winter rains

Turn them to mush under foot

OCTOBERNESS

 

Misty mornings

Start dim and dismal

Penetrating Dampness

Seeping into your bones

Some days it brightens later

Enough for shirtsleeves

Then when darkness falls

Curtains are drawn

At the months beginning

Grass is still growing green

The trees are well covered still

Then leaves turn green to yellow

Yellow is burnished to gold

Gold to burning red

Then red to earth

Beyond the equinox

Days have already become

More dark than light

Before the clocks fall back

And the sun sets sooner

Days of sunshine deceive

Sheltered pockets warm and confuse the senses

In the later days

When the residual warmth diminishes

The bite remains

To herald worse to come   

I DO NOT LIKE THAT

 

As by way of a general ruling

I have made this to be my doctrine

To dislike, distrust or fear

Any creature meeting these criteria

Anything with more limbs than I

Anything that moves faster than I

Anything with scales or feathers

Anything surviving extreme weathers

Anything having more teeth than I do

Any creature covered in goo

Anything that growls and grunts

That isn’t engaged in sexual stunts

Anything with claws and talons

Anything that drools by the gallons

Anything that’s excessively hairy

Any creature whose eyes are starey

Anything that bites or stings

Anything that uses wings

Anything with horns or armour

Anything with an aggressive demeanour

Anything too small to see

Anything that’s bigger than me

If you think of anything I've missed

Then I will add them to the list

BARK

 

Their whole life

Is etched into the bark

The trunks wear their story

To be read with the eye

Or touched like brail

Cracked and weathered

Like the face of an old mariner

Showing what was

And what is still

It protects like a pachyderm’s hide

It’s the first line of defense

Against any aggressor

Then when the tree falls

It’s the last to die

PASSING BY

Way up high

In the sky

Clouds pass by

I wonder why

On a bright day

Some might say

I see the milky way

Indeed, they may

Way up then

Near to heaven

I shall know when

Clouds pass again 

WIND

 

Wind is a wonderful thing

Invisibly it makes the leaves dance

And trees gyrate as if shaken

By an invisible hand

Water is pushed before it

Rain and snow are driven by it

It ripples through cornfields

Whispers in the grass

It whistles through canyons

Whines like a tortured spirit

Or scream like a banshee

It is a fickle force

It can be silent like a mouse

Or roar like a lion

Its gentleness can caress your cheek

Its awesome power

Can toss you like a rag doll

Or snap you like a twig

Its power is to be respected

It’s uncompromising and indiscriminate

A force to be reckoned with

Whether from the frozen north

Or a bitter easterly

A stormy westerly

Or a vengeful tempest from the south

PERFECT PARADISE

 

The crystal waters

Wash gently onto

Virgin white sand

Untrod by man

Unspoiled by technology

And no vapour trails

Mark the azure sky

 

The trees untended

Lay where they fell

The coconuts un-harvested

But for the wind

Lay untouched also

 

They beach stretched

As far as the eye could see

Far into the distance

Un-marked and un-scarred

No buildings

No phone masts

No pylons

No wind farms

Or streetlights

The only sounds to be heard

Were the waves breaking,

The gentle breeze in the palms

And assorted birdcalls

No gunfire

No car alarms

No train whistles

No sonic booms

Or traffic

Just a perfect silence

 

No flotsam of plastics and tins

Littered the beach

Just endless white sand’s

And perfect blue skies

The rustles of palm fronds

And warm scented breezes

So where is this paradise?

It’s in the long distant past