AUTUMN MEMOIRS

The city sighs smoke and soot

The boughs bend on melancholy weight

Fog thickens in the foliage grim

And I sulk on my lonely perch.

Smoke hangs on my dreams

Like dirty rags on the line.

Left behind by the migrating mates

I sit, nursing my wounded wing.

The roads smell of decaying mire

The gutters run with spittle and stool

I do not want to flutter around

In the depressive autumn filth.

Where the meadows are ever green

Where the sunshine is molten gold

Where the fields are ripe for harvest

Where my mates sing and prance

Where the song of my loved one

Rise in the moon-lit nights,

Where my  young ones sweet

Ride the bovine backs and tweet:

To those memories my heart aches

And from restless broodings I wake

To the bland feelings of twilight air.

When the dark clouds shroud the horizon

My expectations fall like autumn leaves

To be stirred round and around

By the north-wester winds

Scribbled when left alone in the great city