Searching November

Now with twenty days gone it appears apropos
to ask Mister November--Hey, where did you go?
He arrived as he does every All Hallows Day,
but I now have to find where he’s hiding away.

(I can hear him in huffing assert that it’s me,
  that my measure of time ain’t what it used to be.
  Yet I stand fast against any monthly indict,
  and will search for November with all of my might.)

Through the yard past the fence in the field did I seek;
in the rustling leaves I thought I heard him speak.
Then I strode to the lake to stand next to the shore
to see white caps as simply November’s encore.

Off the point in the lake on the waves bobbed the geese;
down from Canada they ascertained autumn’s lease.
And if Mister November was willing to talk,
then perhaps he would honk right along with the flock.

Ah, a gust of cool air nipped the nape of my neck;
(seems the breath of November was mine to inspect.)
As the goose bumps arrived and began to congeal,
my November inspection was strictly by feel.

On the road coming back leaves amassed by the bunch,
and the month that I searched for opined crispy crunch.
Much akin to the rustle I heard past the fence,
it was November’s fall of which I got a sense.

There’s the sun to the south more than I like my star;
to turn day into night it need not fall too far.
Awesome light from the sun, so resplendent and pure!
I perceived in the light my one month, to be sure.

(Blue sky clear with a piece of the moon in the west;
  Old November likes fall yet he gives it a rest.
  All denuded the trees like the maple and oak;
  the forsythia holds yet he gives it a poke.)

So I raked slender leaves green with yellowish tint;
all at once I received from November a hint;
The red buckets I use overflowed from the fall,
and as dusk drew its veil, I heard November call.

In the clear of the evening as day went to bed,
I took leave of my rake and stowed it in the shed.
In the end I decided I was not deceived:
Sir November was found when my senses received.


40 Lines
Anapestic Tetrameter
Writer’s Cramp
11-21-15