We don’t call our autumn, ‘Fall’.
It’s soft, fragrant
like a mother’s caress,
almost a blurred white in hue.
It is rather a being
with two dove wings.
When it touches us
with one,
the green fields
sprout their wings of
silken Kans grass
and begin to sway,
as if to join
the milky clouds in sail.
Sheuli flowers,
the die-drop beauties
drop all night
leaving their sighs
in the heavy
sweet scented air.
While the other wing,
touches to bless us
with cool, sequined nights,
owl songs, a softer sun,
dewy grass, day’s foggy eye.
Full grown crops
wait silently
to break their tie
with mother earth.
The Neem tree
prepares its mind
to bare its soul,
to let go
of its weary, sleepy leaves,
and to rest in relief.
This autumn
eighteen coffins from Uri*
reached home
safely.
*18 Indian soldiers were killed in a militant attack at Uri, Kashmir. Terrorists from neighboring Pakistan still keep trying infiltration bids. May be it’s a price India is paying for never ever being an aggressive country, a misfit in today’s world. Whenever India sent someone abroad it was always with message of Peace and Love from the days of the Buddha to the very recent times of the 19th century. She has been like this for the last 5ooo years and has seen the rise and fall of many a mighty empire.
Posted for Susan’s Midweek Motif ~ Equinox, Equator @ Poets United
sumanar/lekha 
Yes. Yes. I feel the touch of the wing, see the effect in the fields, know the red that intervenes with nature’s true way. Such sadness. Thank you.
I loved the painting of autumn that you’ve drawn with your words. It is so beautiful.
I was reading the poem with a smile on my face, when the poem concluded with the Uri attacks that filled my heart with grief. Heart wrenching…no one knows when such attacks will stop and when peace will prevail.
The Neem tree
prepares its mind to bare its soul… that is lovely.
Hard to fathom the attacks and those killed brutally. God bless their soul!
Oh this is so heart wrenching 😦 may their kind and brave souls rest in peace…
A very clever play on Autumn and The Fall – and the fallen – I hope in spite of whatever challenges the world bestows upon us Autumn is also a time of sowing new seeds and planting,new hopes
What a sobering end to your poem: 18 coffins!
I love the owl songs and day’s foggy eye. I am so sorry about the unrest and the 18 young soldiers. It seems wrong that there is bloodshed in Kashmir, the heaven on earth famed for its beauty. Wrong for there to be bloodshed anywhere.
Your afterwords are very sad, Sumana. Really sad that India, though not an agressive country, has been the object of such aggression. Your poem, on the other hand, presents autumn with a beautiful and peaceful face.
How sad that in today’s world (and for milennia in the past) that being peaceful is seen as weakness rather that of beauty, calmness and love. Unfortunately that feeling is widespread and despite having the UN and peackeeping forces we are noweher near becoming a peaceloving world. What a beautiful post this is Sumana.
Your first line did something wondrous to my heart. Such power.
A beautiful description of your season filled with beauty and peace only to be marred at the end by the death of the soldiers.
The essence of our autumn…so beautifully expressed through your words.
Regarding the Uri attack, you have rightly said, India is a misfit….gone are the days of non-violence….
I appreciate the notes Sumana. Despite the war, deep down inside we long for peace & rest – really like a mother’s caress ~
Absolutely glorious and beautiful! Making the sadness of the present circumstances all the more poignant.
There is always that lingering possibility of a conflict in a seemingly secured environment. May the souls of the fallen be accorded their ‘peace’
Hank
A beautiful elegy, Sumana. When will the world learn that violence is not the answer to the problems besetting it?
A lovely contemplative piece infused with really exquisite adjectives. “It is rather a being with two dove wings”: such an evocative metaphor, it seemed to lift right off the page.