Autumn Sun

The summer had not come, but still was gone
October and finally the clouds parted
A glimpse of what could have been
Just a day to live the wrong season
One day to walk and watch and enjoy

Drove out of town to fight the crowds in the wilderness
Walk the Wiltshire hills
Which roll like the clichéd waves
Escape the crush and embrace the view
Pick a spot to sit and read and dream

Haze in the distance
Not cleared by the breeze which cools
But doesn’t chill
Rustles the pages and stirs the grass
Grown long beneath my feet
Insects on my sleeves, a spider
Starts to spin between thumb and book
But is borne away

Shadows dance with the words as I forsake the view
Subtly changed when I finally gaze again
No longer the same, so I rise
Pause for ice cream
To lick and drip and refresh

Another drive, another view
But the same crowds even in the forest
Delicate colours will be gone in a week
Swept together, reduced to nothing
But now those leaves shine and dance and dazzle

I remember another autumn
The same unique tableau
Not here, but beside the lake
Where the light shimmered and leapt across that mirror
Keep the city, I do not need it
Anything that can be bought is worthless
Who wants to live forever?
Not I

One day I too will shrivel and fall and rot
But it will not matter
Even if I do nothing more
For I was there
That autumnal day in England
When I walked and dreamed and drank and lived
Was it perfect?
No
But close enough