Autumn

Late summer evenings
Fall hides in long shadows.

No one can see it,
it is quiet and meek

like a deer
on a pine needle bed,

but boulder in darkness
as it walks in the fields.

It has come to prepare
us for winter.

A prankster,
wiley and clever,

encouraging Bullfrogs
to burrow in the mud

and snakes to crawl
into holes.

In time
it will show its true colors,

but until then it is
piling up kindling

for fires it will light
in the tops of the trees.