April 30 - Something Welcome This Way Comes

© Public Domain

Something Welcome This Way Comes

In the sodden morning, autumn’s musty breath

Whistles down the lane, rattling the cottonwoods,

Generating expectant whispers high up among

And all along their loosely ordered ranks.

Expectancy hangs like the Spanish moss

Back home in Texas and Louisiana.

Here in the North Country the seasons wear

The passing of time like a pampered fashion plate.

Each season’s turning sends a new and bitter wind

Rattling across the treetops, each year a little colder

Than the last; more fraught with gray, less brightly colored

Less welcoming than in seasons gone before.

And on the porch we sit and note the subtle changes,

Catch the scent that’s carried on the breezes,

Mark the signs engraved against the dismal Earth and sky

That speak of something welcome this way coming.

© 2016 by Tom King