Seasonal Affronts

Denial is useless, we have lost
the warmth of the summer sun,
it arches lower in the sky
and shortened daylight hours 
dim our days, frosty nights shrivel
foliage, the garden preparing its
days and months of mourning.

One day the woodland trees
are painted translucent green,
sun winkling through, breezes
twirling leaves, and the following
day the acrid aroma of tannin
sharply reminds us of autumn.

A reminder the landscape reports
with yellow, orange and red
leaves whirling in a cooler wind
that urges songbirds to their
night-time flight, geese assembling
in platoons for southern journey.