Autumn Tones

Cool air wafts and sways under the leaden sky
Finally the 'season of mellow fruitfulness' has arrived
And the ground is sodden with Autumnal rains
So long since they have been here.

The soils musty damp rises to the senses
And the plants spring to renewal under the wet
the red blush of the bottlebrush is replenished
a second coming this time around.

Sounds of birds squabbling to find a roost
brings back the memory of a man's whistle
As he wends his way back up the garden path
knocking his boots against the cement underfoot.

The smell of apples cooking in the kitchen
the fire newly lit in the lounge room
my schoolgirls uniform damp from the walk home
caught in the downpour of Autumnal rains.

Melancholy visits far too often now
and the dreams of the past and the past's future is dulled
with the children grown and the parents dead
Autumn brings with it a mournful breath.

Then the call of the loved one raising me from the mist
of past and future and dull present
Raises the heart and the hope once again
As he smiles and reminds me of my Autumn tones.