Another Autumn

It was as if leaves suddenly started to turn 
The singing broke a morning’s stillness
Green faded into yellow; yellow to red
Sound cascading down the walls
The heat pressing through the clouds

Not much of note to mark the moment
We didn’t recognise the tune itself 
Jasmine climbed away from its frame
But the key changes resonated
The flowers having fallen weeks back

Time, then, is counted in shortening hours
Notes dropping above and below
Between what was and what’s to come
A bit flat, now a little sharp, always earnest
Taking pleasure in the not knowing

You never notice till the season’s past
A last chorus drifted through glass
How that smell of blooms covers all sins
Was it a hallelujah or just the mind’s echo?
Its absence returns sticky-sweet rot

Better to have spent the time distracted
Silence carries a new weight now
Than fall from vines in trying to capture
Ears peeled as if expecting the encore
Another autumn

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