Short Fall

Fall came late to my town this year and seems quite anxious to leave already. The view from my living room used to be of a wood that turned resplendent in Autumn and stayed that way for several weeks. It was a feast for the eyes and made climbing the three flights of stairs quite worthwhile. I had a clear view of the trees from inside without the obstructions on the parking lot.

Unless you are hiding under a rock, it is impossible to go through a day these days without hearing a reference to the "inconvenient truth" of our times. The glaciers in Greenland are melting, the seasons have all gone awry, it is hotter than it used to be everywhere in the world. There is no good news, no silver lining to the doomsday clouds of climate change.

After a couple of very busy weeks and weekends, I am now home and have the time savor the trees. But the leaves are shedding rapidly - they swirl and scatter all day long and its not even windy. The bright yellows are all gone, the oranges and reds are turning dull brown, many branches are already bare. It is like nature relented at last to our plea for a fall like fall is supposed to be but is too worn out to stay as long as she once used to.

These lines from the poem First Snow makes me think of a very tired Earth :

So the snow has to fall, sleep has to come.
Because the mother’s sick to death of her life
and needs silence.