Among Ripe Apple Orchards

Leaves scurrying like mice
Among ripe apple orchards
Spin in russet spirals,
Celebrating their release.
Peerless cobalt skies
Above the apple orchards
Chatter with the passing
Of south-bound geese.
 
Fire-hued maples
Blazing in the barnyard
Sprinkle leafy sparks
Onto loam-covered feet.
Curly headed pumpkins
Peppering the barnyard
Watch the sleepy summer
And the waking winter meet.
 
Dead stalks stir
'Neath the button-eyed scarecrow,
His stitched smile fraying
In the faintly blowing air,
A brazen caw descends
To the button-eyed scarecrow,
Who still serenely watches
The horizon, unaware.
 
Dusty sunlight winks
In the cobwebs of the cornshed,
A red squirrel rushes
Pitter-pat across the floor.
Pitchforks lean
On the walls of the cornshed,
Corn ears listen
To the wind at the door.