Autumn Missed

From the vantage point

of a cold January morning,

a sunny, warm late October day

seems so attractive

with unseasonal warmth

and the end of the autumn colour

before leaves fall in drifts,

paths still firm underfoot,

berries dripping from 

the bramble thorns,

rosehips and haws 

studding the hedgerows,

windfallen crab-apples 

puddled on the ground.

A time poised, ending ripeness

but not yet into decay -

birds waiting to fly away, 

clocks yet to change,

chickens yet to come home to roost.