For Karin’s prompt at Real Toads –
Autumn in My Mind
I’m slipping away to the land of Autumn,
stepping over that line of demarcation
as easily as I slip from one state to the next:
Welcome to Virginia on one side of the sign
and on the other side, Welcome to North Carolina.
The red ripe tomato turns to an apple in my hand
And the green clusters of summer grapes
changes into the deep purple single globes
of muscadine or the golden scuppernongs –
tinged with the smell and taste of autumn.
I am leaving for Autumn,
crossing the line as daintily as I stepped
over the line from Will You Marry to I Do.
As casually as You Have Cancer to – You are healed
I have stepped across the line on the hospital floor.
I am sailing for Autumn on the wings of a hawk
riding the wind currents and looking for mice
scampering across the gold stubbled field.
The hummingbirds are changing into vees of geese.
The green leaves of the cherry trees are brightening to gold
And falling to earth – the wind is tossing them
up to the clear autumn azure sky.
muscadine grapes
kanzen sakura 
Aug 30, 2018 @ 09:44:53
The beautiful autumn will soon adorn the earth….. We all are waiting!!
Aug 30, 2018 @ 10:01:56
I have been waiting for Autumn since spring!
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Aug 30, 2018 @ 11:09:32
this is a song of Autumn – beautiful beautiful lyrics, love the colour changes and the way you slip through major life events and into the high flying bird
Aug 30, 2018 @ 14:18:37
Thank you. I love autumn
Aug 30, 2018 @ 12:27:35
My favorite time of year, so beautifully conveyed through your words. The autumn seasons of our lives all written here as well. Excellent.
Aug 30, 2018 @ 14:18:08
Thank you my friend
Aug 30, 2018 @ 13:44:06
Very autumnal–I like that 🙂
Aug 30, 2018 @ 14:10:06
oh this is sacrosanct –
what a most intimate poem, and it speaks with such a grace, elegance, and appreciation for life – transitions, changes, overcoming the incredible, the terrific (as in terrifying) and still, rising … above and soaring.
Aug 30, 2018 @ 14:16:00
Yes ma’am. And fall is my favorite time of year to boot, followed by winter.
Aug 30, 2018 @ 14:22:53
How familiar your poem, as if I have read it for a one hundred years, a wonderful poem to memorize and recite often, even though I know it is “brand new!”
Aug 30, 2018 @ 14:23:52
Thank you Annell. I hope somebody someday might memorize it!
Aug 30, 2018 @ 14:42:47
I love the thought of stepping over that line into autumn, Toni, my favourite season, and your poem reminds me why – the colours, smells and tastes! I especially enjoyed:
‘I am sailing for Autumn on the wings of a hawk
riding the wind currents and looking for mice’
and
The hummingbirds are changing into vees of geese.
The green leaves of the cherry trees are brightening to gold’.
Aug 30, 2018 @ 17:11:03
A very autumnal autumn that gives thanks to going on. Quite lovely. Thanks so much. K.
Aug 31, 2018 @ 06:42:05
What a wonderful poem of sad autumn. How I really felt that way as read it out loud..
Aug 31, 2018 @ 09:37:12
Yes, all those lines we cross with every next step, some wlecome, some not, but always the progression from this to that, from one thing or state of being to the next. My favorite part was the ending with the leaves.
Aug 31, 2018 @ 12:47:03
Wow, I love this poem, so full of those demarcation lines along life’s path. I love all of the seasonal changes, and am most struck by the lines “have stepped across the line on the hospital floor./ I am sailing for Autumn on the wings of a hawk.” Fantastic write, Toni!
Aug 31, 2018 @ 17:34:53
So beautifully expressed. What a delightful transition.
Aug 31, 2018 @ 23:49:18
Hi Toni, I really enjoyed this. Though when I reached the stepping into Healed from Cancer had me scared bad. The hospital line helped a bit but still, …
Lighter side. We don’t get Autum in our part of Texas until November or December. It doesn’t stay long as soon we have Winter.
..
Sep 01, 2018 @ 01:18:04
Don’t be scared Jim. There is also the follow up…you are healed. That happened seven years ago. My hair went completely white in the space of a week but, I was healed, thanks be to God and the best oncologist in the state.
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Sep 01, 2018 @ 04:59:11
of muscadine or the golden scuppernongs –
tinged with the smell and taste of autumn.
These two lines alone are just so beautiful, with words to roll around the tongue and the tang of Autumn.
Sep 01, 2018 @ 11:08:52
Thank you Kerry. The flavors from these grapes are truly the taste of autumn wine.
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Sep 01, 2018 @ 11:37:22
The lines we are crossing… and there are some we cannot do anything about.. autumn… just like health… we have to accept what’s coming. We have ripe tomatoes in mass this year… sweet little plums.