an estuary of seasons

Autumn finally showed up, making her bold, drizzly proclamation, and today she and summer had a tussle, one final argument before the changing of the guard. The storm started in the morning and went all day, dropping rain in sprinkles and heavy sheets, lightning in scattered flashes, thunder like rupturing quarries of invisible stone. The chill set in and held on through the rain, reminding us at once of the summer that has been spent, this storm the brisk final note of that warm sonata, and the winter that’s waiting, just ahead, like a bandit around the pass, chilly pistol in hand, chamber loaded, hammer back, patient.