parallel clouds incise carmine and burgundy
brazen pink, sultry purple, jewels, fine wines

russet dry bushes vainly weave
in field of golden straw
that lay down long ago
horizon of radiant line between
swirl of ink wash clouds
sodden clusters of leaves
collapse and removal of summer complete

sky alive, dances coloured hues,
fury and action, rushes a hundred feet
above our heads; we of mud, aloof
fading, our sled drab, quotidian

autumn is nature’s décolletage; transformation from
sumptuousness into colours that play against elegant whites
eveningwear, tuxedos, top hats; we view her with pleasure
elegance traced in line and flowers that fled to adorn her
highlight of the evening, her gown the talk of the ball
radiant before a background of deep velvet wall hangings
that curl into tendrils, start at Persian carpets and erupt
into frescoes that coyly disappear into shadow, the constant
shift of appearance she insists upon, ever increasing night

it’s the small amongst the immense that blinds
drudge spray of tall dry grass against
field of decay transmutes by errant sunbeam
into beacon of spirit, light; wave in the harbour
translucent, emerald, obsidian, weightless
hangs perfect, impossible, falls, rises
again and again