October, you are no more the harbinger of Autumn
The green elm with the one great bough of gold
came in late August – the yellowing of drought
stealing the march on your glorious displays
and dooming those boughs to die with your first frost
for those burned leaves made no antifreeze
for the tree to suck back in before the leaves
their final purpose fulfilled
into the grass slip[ped] one by one…
And too came branches near breaking with berries
their colour near drowning out the last green leaves
turning the trees a brown when seen from afar
another false Autumnal hue and a feast too early
for the migrant birds which land in October
they will find the berries gone over, their bounty wasted
and now the land is draped in true October colours
we may be lulled into thinking the season too runs true
but like those birds in coming hunger mired
will Harebell and snowdrop, at their season due,
awake to the unseasonal “beast from the East”
or interminable drought or rain or heat?
October you are not the only month no longer
acting true to expectations – all is climate changed…
© Andrew Wilson, 2025
The italicised lines are taken from “October” by Edward Thomas, 1915.
Over at dVerse Poets Pub, Dora in Poetics invites us to trip the October Light Fantastic and although that beautiful display has begun, it is not the whole story this year, and indeed, for coming years, and I find I cannot celebrate with unalloyed pleasure…