Fall Inventory

The massive old willow squatting stolidly
 at the bottom of the forested ravine, roots
not far from the muddy creek running 
through the forest, will be the last to lose its 
foliage in this mixed-woodland landscape 
of deciduous and evergreens where woolly-bear 
caterpillars creep along the forest floor 
searching out cocooning sites before winter 
onset. Bluejays scream from the masts of tall 
pines, just passing through on their journey 
from the summertime boreal forest to southern 
landscapes for the winter months. That old 
spruce whose lean is now almost perpendicular
though its roots remain firmly entrenched in 
the forest soil may see its last winter this year. 
A maple seedling that had ensconced itself 
at the foot of an old pine is a blaze of red 
against the stern ridges of the pine. Dressed 
for fall, an understory fir sapling's slender boughs
have caught the cast-off foliage of the forest canopy. 
The autumn wind blows a confetti of foliage 
off unresisting trees. Another chorus of geese
flying in arrowed formation across the sky 
signals the arrival of another season. Bees and
hover-flies drift about the last of the fall asters.
The chariot of the sun fleets across the sky 
at a lower angle, setting behind the horizon 
with breathtaking speed as dusk creeps in to 
fill the vacuum departing light has left behind.
In the still of night breezes, the slight chirps of
migrating songbirds waft through the air stoically
calling comfort and courage to one another.