!Fall? ?Already!

It is, of course, inevitable that 
the moment we begin to turn the corner
from one season to another, a surge of
discontent seems to electrify the
atmosphere and unseen by human
eye subtle transformations take place
when signals suddenly noticed
bear tidings of departure and
arrival as though nature's
stewardship is one great assembly
requiring a director to point to the
correct gates of ingress and egress
to confused creatures. Take the 
forest, as an example, whose
residents, both flora and fauna
become faintly aware of waning
daylight hours and changing 
temperatures triggering the panic of
migration for those who do, and 
pantry-stuffing for those who must.
So much for the warm-blooded
creatures fearfully anticipating the
entrance of winter. What of vegetation
despairing at the faint tug of
collective memory heralding a long
sleep? Each to its season, with no
laggards tolerated; out with the
Black-eyed Susan, the Sunflowers
the Queen Anne's lace and the Mullein.
In with the Hawthorn haws, the
splendid red horns of the Staghorn 
sumac; make way for the Pussytoes
the Asters and the Jewelweed; allow
them their truncated season, the last to
flourish before fall is eclipsed and
Winter Solstice charges into view.