A fronte praecipitium a tergo lupi

Rest awhile here, if I may,
everything passes too fast these days.
This time of golden light should be celebrated.
Winter ahead, anticipated, not welcome,
it’s inevitability better than the alternative.
Some despise autumn, the colours intimidate,
those glories cannot offset the hardships.

Look, this richness is ours for the asking.
We are here now, we hold this very truth.
Leaves fear the breeze,
their mutated glory extant,
they too know what must come.
The tree grieves for its loss, stands firm.
the ground is now carpeted for us, lush, soft.

There is shelter from the harshness at day’s end.
Frost delays decay, colours grey, distinguished.
The cold stiffens, sap struggles,
old limbs brittle against the wind.
There is still a fire, burning low in the hearth.
Sometimes warmth rouses memories.
Memories of times, when blazing we ran the ways,
racing, not against time, but ourselves,
thrown at the old world.

Not halcyon our days, pressured, exuberant,
though they exist only as shards.
Encapsulated in a taste, texture,
places, friends, touching, touched.
Stare now, into the dancing flames,
remember how it once was.

Hold onto it, do not brood, replenish the bounty.
Throw more fuel on the flames, watch them rise.
Spring is remembered as a glorious tune,
grown stale with repetition.
Summer was all too much hard work, paying the piper.
We reap the rewards of it now;
we should enjoy them as we can
A harvest to be gathered in, held, used, enjoyed.

We have not delayed the inevitable,
but cautioned ourselves into the present.
Our bastions against the coming weather,
seeds sewn in warmer days.
We nurture them, they are sturdy we hope.
Security of a sort, but not assured.
Home is warm, comfortable, a refuge,
that wind is resistible
to a degree, yet we stumble forward.

We are not harbingers, we know not acclaim,
though autumn is the best of seasons.
We laud the golden light, not of summer,
but of the fading days.
Dark comes early now, days are shorter.
Autumn is both good and transitory, enjoy it.
It’s all we have.

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