Autumn Walking

Coming back up another way,

I pause again for breath,

Sit by a fractured stone,

Aware of the trees death,

The dire cascade,

All around,

Red, yellow and brown,

Such variegated sheets

Flash and ebb

Upon the unlit ground.

Here bush and gardens meet 

I, trace back the burn-off,

Mark the way down

To the tenebrous valley floor.

Where swollen smoke

Sat, crept and wound, and

Impalpably coiled by

Hapless ferns

And riven gums,

And dragonflies

Stuck in space.

I'd put a face

To my thoughts,

If I could,

But would that help,

Their roiling?