[Michael Cantor]

Susan and Julie - Thanks. I grabbed it from a series of triolets on the seasons - A Bouquet of Triolets - on my Hypertexts page. Third stanza. (I changed red sumacs to red foxes to avoid the dammed leaves.)

[Ann Drysdale]

Third Turn

Fruition. I eschew the race
to beat the creatures who would steal
the makings of an easy meal.
Instead I give them living-space
and hope thereby to gain in grace.
For I have fruit and they have not
so I will share my garden plot
with all small things that come to glean
the secret spaces in between
the softness and the whiff of rot.

Sorry - this cops out in the last line and goes rotty after all...

[Brian Allgar]

I’m sitting in my garden in October, and it’s hot,
A glass of whisky in my hand, pure malt, a double shot,
Admiring all the plants that grew from summer’s wanton seeds;
The garden’s green and lush ... the only problem is, they’re weeds.

[RCL]

Wild Apples

One autumn day, my mind told me to play
and let our hungry body find its way
to trees with rarer apples fit for picking.

We found a feral orchard strewn with slough,
the apples gnarled, all small and tart and tough.
Their biting tang on lips and tongue was shocking.

Surprised when older, we thought they tasted sweet
and seemed a perfect feast we would repeat—
tamed by time, did apples do the picking?

[Brian Allgar]

They sound like crab apples, Ralph. When I was at boarding-school in Sussex, there were loads of them in the surrounding countryside, and the science master let us turn them into cider under his instructions. Of course, we weren't allowed to drink it at school, but I took several bottles home for the Christmas holidays. No other cider has ever tasted as good.

[RCL]

Brian, definitely crabs! Glad the tartness triggered memories of things past.

[Catherine Chandler]

How refreshing not to read about falling leaves, etc. etc.!!! It is SO overdone!

Julie, I absolutely love your light take, and Michael, you truly (IMHO) are the king of the triolet. The one you posted is gorgeous.

As soon as fall comes up here in Quebec, however, my mind is already on the beaches of Punta del Este, where right now it's spring. When winter lasts a good 5 months, there's not much to like about autumn.

[Andrew Frisardi]

[Sorry, but this was embarrassingly bad.]