Autumn in Lakewood

A blip of Autumn from my perch in Lakewood~
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I stepped out to the back porch on this warm, October evening, here on the wet side of the Washington Cascades. It was early evening, just after sunset near the Puget Sound.

The scent of burning firewood from a nearby fireplace met me instantly. In the next beat I thought of the burning oak leaves in the neighborhood of my 1960’s youth, but, quickly discounted it. In that instant I was a fugitive of my youth. Intoxicating remembers are pesky things.

There was …

Nothing on my mind, there was fancy in my heart. There was an unlit stick of tobacco gently fixed between two fingers of my left hand –

I quietly shut the back door behind me, dug a lighter out of the front pocket of my button up 501’s with my right hand and lit my nemesis. Walked out further on to the back porch and took up my favorite spot beneath the limbs of the old cedar tree that’s likely been around longer than I.

Took a long draw.
For a beat I wondered if old Cedar Tree’s had silly old remember’s like we humans do.

Up above, the…

Clouds were playin’ a game of hide and seek with the stars that lived far beyond the limbs of that old cedar tree. The limbs flirted with the breeze and my exhaled smoke and complicated the game. I got to thinkin’ that –

Soon it would be Halloween. Got to thinkin’ bout –

Dried out corn stalks on some of the porch’s in the neighborhood. Pumpkins and scary scenes will pop up on some of the porch’s in the neighborhood, in some of the yards, too.

Won’t be long before little kiddo’s and some big-uns, too, clad in festive costumes will visit the front door of our home with their grubby little hands full of give me and mouths full of smiles.

I just love it when I open the front door and see ‘em standin’ there in the porch light on Halloween. Fugitive of youth comes to mind again. Then –

Soon after that Thanksgiving will come, after that old man winter will come for his/her annual visit. The Winter Equinox. A few days later old St Nick will get in a fuss with the fireplace smoke in all the neighborhoods on earth. He will win. How does he do that? I’ll never know.

After that night wintertime will go so slow I want to scream.

Sometimes I look forward to winter, other times not so much. But –

Just now it’s only mid-October.

The air is cool, not cold. Winter is still a remember or two away, not close.

I got to thinkin’ I need to buy some Halloween candy on my next grocery safari. Got to thinkin’ ‘bout some old friends, too, wonderin’ how they’re doin’. In the next beat –

I leaned over the porch rail and pinched the cherry of my cigarette and deposited the cold butt into the garbage can that lives on the back porch.

Silently said me byes to the tree and clouds and closed the lid on the rubbish can, then left the can, the tree, the clouds and my thoughts out there in the cool of the evening. I stepped back into the house – into a new now.

“You hungry”? I half shouted out to Kendra, the gal that tolerates me.

She didn’t reply. Pffft –

The woman is deaf in one ear, eh? Damn Woman…