Autumn in Vermont

Drastic changes everywhere abound

foliage erupts in a symphony of colorful sound

a tray of crisp maple leaf cookies

crunching underneath your feet

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Sugar shacks boil away

filling the dark of morn

with the sweet scent of the forest’s life-blood

while the sun glistens on maple trickling

from the taps on trees

long rooted in their mountain niche

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The lush, living forest floor

all a slick green wash of

activity and fervor

even the flora extends to

meet the sun

fiddlehead ferns and

the last morning glories

dance in the light

with fragrant raspberries

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A muskrat fights a

chittering raccoon for a

fish he caught that afternoon

the deer watches as she drinks

and strides away when the bobcat slinks

down the mountain into the breeze

striking up fear, sending its plentiful prey

scattering to the changing winds

K.B. Silver

I haven’t yet been able to visit the beautiful state of Vermont. My husband, though, is from there and speaks of it often and fondly. He talks about the spots in the woods he and his friends would visit, the plants and animals they saw, and the weather they encountered—the idyllic nature, minus some of the human problems.