An Autumnal Appreciation

Burley tobacco is drying in the barns
The corn has been harvested and the stalks turned to silage
A third cut of hay has been baled and still the dark green grass grows
Cascading down every mountain comes a torrent of color
Ruby red sourwoods nestling under the bullion gold of hickories
Plump orange sugar maples punctuating the landscape
Mushrooms of heroic proportions and cartoonish mien
Pop up in the barbed wire DMZ 'twixt field and woods
I come home from foraging feeling like a human chia pet
But covered in weed seeds exceeds noshed on by seed ticks

The long-range creek view has returned
And the insect repellent goes back to its winter cabinet
Along with the SPF 30 soon made redundant by fleecy layers
Cold beer on the deck at 5 gives way to hot tea by the fire at 4
For that last, brilliant ray of sun which streams through the ridges' gap
Illuminating a single tree at the end of the road
Soon withdraws its warm glow
How fortunate to have caught that fleeting moment
And how powerful the greedy desire for another and another.