Autumn Effects

Blink and you’ll miss it: the new season is creeping in

I saw a first burst of yellow

hanging in the trees

from the train window the other day

Drip, drip, drip, drip first thing upon waking my coffee maker percolates.

Day by day, summer fades a crisp, crystalline blue sky in the morning as the sun comes up to bless us.

“Mommy, how does the weather know it’s BACK TO SCHOOL?” my neighbor’s daughter yells as she glides around in circles outside.

Sun and shadows wage an endless tug-of-war as with every passing day the sun loses its summer vigor.

Heavier clothes are brushed off from yearly retirement; telltale but subtle signs the seasons are on the change all are slowly drifting in.

I feel a twinge of oft-familiar emotion: the dying of a sun-soaked season the whispers of childhood summers past friends, pools, beaches, bikes, boats.

The new, darker season

of shadows, perfumed scents, cold and splendorous decay comes in like the tide.

It all started when

I saw a first burst of yellow from the train window the other day.