Happy First Day of Autumn

Autumn Thrum and Din

It was everything, brilliantly:
Interwoven hums of nada.
Gangs of pale, scorched clouds          
                        screaming in the North.
It was thunderous waves of soundless vibrations
                        ushering magnetic fields up, up, up
                        to where my feet anchor with rock.
 
It was droning energy.
 
It was clear air and sharp, angular leaf blades  
scissoring their silhouettes against
distant fog-slick mountains.
It was color parachuting off dragonfly wings,
                        off tiger swallowtail tails,
                        off thronging arsenals of monarchs,
off battalions of invading blue/green beetles,
                        iridescent and sparking. It was corn fire.
It was colour melting off finch chests, jay crests,
                        hummingbird throats and onto
the West, into the fire.
 
Circles, spirals, the Golden Mean.
 
It was Earth sponge and loam-taste stranded in
                        my nostrils, escaping to my mouth
                        in nests of cascading dust motes
                        swallowed in gulps.
 
Echo breeze: thrum and din of pulse and place.
 
I stop.
Wait.
Now, blink away,
Slo-mo.
Some immense Gift travels toward me.
 
 
 
 
by Barbara Helvey Hughes, 9-22-2020