Today’s poem

AUTUMN MEMORIES

Autumn’s here in colourful splendour, The first leaves begin to fall. Get prepared for longer evenings, Find your scarf to watch football. Fleeting now, these golden days, Time to dig up allotment spuds, Unblock the drains and gutters, Wash garden seats with soapy suds. Put away the sunshades, Garden gazebos and barbecues, Show kids how to play conkers, Locate the winter shoes. Birds devour the sunflower heads, Weighed down with stripy seeds. There’s a heady whiff of bonfires, Pumpkins ripen among Michaelmas weeds. The autumn months are slipping by But we never quite prepare For the long, dark days of winter When the trees, stripped of leaves, are bare. And it’s dark in the morning and evening, Winter’s back, bringing fog, cold winds and rain. But cocooned, in our pleasant memories, These golden days of autumn still remain.

Mrs Anita Bass, Theydon Bois, Essex.