Autumn Thoughts

Rabbitbrush is everywhere in bloom
Painting the shrub-steppe gold
Bright against the drab green and gray of sage
and the silvery leaves of Russian Olive

Just ahead, cottonwoods, willows, and cattails
Weave along the edges of the prairie
Revealing a creek that meanders
Toward a mown alfalfa field

Brown and orange and yellow leaves
Layer the lazy water that pools and puddles
In shallow depressions along the creek bed
Where patches of blue sky dot the algae

Black birds fly from the trees like
Flurries of guilty thoughts
An unburdening taking wing
And fluttering off to gun gray skies

I crossed the creek a long walk ago
Where ruined logs made a bridge
Now I look in vain for another crossing
Here, where I have strayed