Come the Fall

September Dawn

Fall has arrived to the high country of northern New Mexico. And with it the rains we missed this summer and the moist laden dawns. The tourists are largely gone and the hills ring with the call of elk.

Come the fall

Shrouded in morning mists

The elk herds are gathered

Each by a proud bull

Bugling into the silence

Answered

And echoed.

The challenge

Swallowed by the fog 

Lying in the valleys

Where the cows are waiting

Anticipating

The clash.

Antlers paired

Rattling like dice 

In the palm of the mountains

Calls of triumph

Echo

Silence.

Come the fall

With the sounds of victory

The silence of defeat

The valley waits

For the first snow

As fall departs.

J. Binford-Bell

September 2011