These Autumn Evenings

 

These Autumn evenings

when the light is soft and low

and birds wait in the trees

for that clarion call, that inner urging

to move on, fly south, fly free…

 

In dark silhouettes they settle in silver water

black capes, long beaks, long legs

at rest for tonight

at rest for now,

yet always inner restlessness

denying them permanent peace.

 

I see the ducks take to the sky,

I hear the rustle of their beating wings,

I feel my own restless heart pulling me onward

to some unknown place I have not been,

or a return to one I have loved before.

These autumn evenings bring restlessness

and sunsets of such wild beauty

to break your heart.

Photos taken at Sweetwater Wetlands in Tucson, AZ on September 17, 2013