Of A Sudden

by Brett Rutherford

For days the monotonous

dog-bark next door

has begged for it,

and it has come.

My view from out

my kitchen window

which yesterday

was summer, now

trumpets October.

Overnight, this autumn

picked up its paints

and palette, lifted

a brush and swept

ochre and tan,

red flame and orange,

blanching the oak

to crisped hue.

Who summoned Fall?

The merely rustled leaves

of summer, rattle now

in sideways wind, as

handless umbrellas

scoot for the horizon.

Last week's firm asters

wither to paper thin;

no more the bees will deign

to pay them homage.

Squirrels dart paranoid,

hide winter larder

in our flower pots.

This being

an election year,

dark pests are everywhere,

lantern-flies belting

us like biblical locusts.

Look, friend, there's one!

Stamp underfoot,

as one might a Nazi.

Free leaves, refusing

the bad news of climate,

defy the sooty air,

torn loose, ejected,

or self-immolated

from too much bad

philosophy, go

to ground, to ground,

only to be swept away.

The sky hangs gray.

Clouds threat to sog

the encumbered earth.

Porch man ignores it all,

yells out to all who pass

dark prophecies

of guns and a dishonored

expresident, of plots

within plots within --

Who summoned Fall?

Whom should I thank

for this minor-key

symphony? I ask --

an owl "who"s back —

the question

is its own answer.

What is, is,

and what is not,

mere cobwebs

in a deluded brain.

October has come.

Summer is gone

as though it had not been.

Why do I so dread

the coming of November?