When October comes

When October comes, here in the South,

the hardwoods hold tight to their spring couture.

While northern forests blaze crimson and gold,

our woods cling to shades of ragged green --

the dogwoods alone have morphed to burgundy.

 It's not that we lack for fall color: we just turn our eyes down and out, rather than up.

In flatlands or foothills, who can't love a pumpkin patch in harvest time,

or yellow peppers on the vine?

Who can't smile at a daisy's drive to launch one more bloom,

at wildflowers winking through the hedgerows,

at a charming church and a bright blue sky?

As the seasons march through their yearly turn,

who wouldn't vote to convict the mighty culprit who stands in the dock, clearly guilty of grandeur?

God's thumbprints are everywhere.

Comments

[Arce]

I miss October in my native Ohio, with donuts yet warm to moderate the cold fresh cider. And of course, the grand colors and the nip in the fall air in the morning.

Met a young lady from Texas at church one Ohio October morning. I am convinced that she fell in love with me on a Sunday afternoon drive up a river valley, with a stop for cider, and later a supper, on that last Sunday in October, and so proposed to me the next Friday evening, just shy of 34 years ago.

Thanks for the reminder.