Autumn’s Entry

Autumn’s Poem 🍂

On our small quiet street

the street lamps lulling

burnished leaves rust away sidewalks

a rake of tines

russet-strewn at the roadside

Wind wanders place to place

drifting through the reasons it shakes

the trees by the waist

until

something bends and twists

The branches crack and break

the silence has now begun

to pick itself up into fists

bewildered

begins knocking on trapdoors, screens

On porches

a tantrum swiftly tries to flee

Starts to howl

is pounding now

on the clapboard

houses are shuddering

slapping facades

the gutters gush a pluvial rage

thrumming

as they pierce down on panes

lightening splits into two

from inside we watch

bolts of jagged gold chains

a grumbling

We are together and warm

the cats gently yawn and stretch

while Penates guards

from our innermost curtains

our storeroom of comforts

food, wine, oil, and all of our other common day binds

as we witness Autumn’s attempt

to pry open

and break in through the window

Elisabeth Johnson-

September 22, 2026