First Kiss of Autumn

First Kiss of Autumn By John Dorroh

It’s about the light, how it alters its slant from the sun, warning the plants that changes are on the way, their auxins and photochemicals reacting with a similar innateness that carefree students and teachers feel in August when advertisements announce that it is time to go back to school. It makes everything lean to the left about 10 degrees, shadows beginning to grow a wee bit taller, a hint of what will happen in a month.

It’s about how things begin to slow down, how the sun sinks below the jagged horizon a minute and 50 seconds earlier each day. I feel it in my chest, a change of pressure as this part of the world prepares itself for its winter bed.

Today it is hot and sticky, a surge of caramel wind wafting up from the south. We are going to Lisa and Jeff’s pool at noon to enjoy another summer swim. Soon it will be unwise to jump into diamond waters, so we best enjoy it while we can.