Fall Monsoons Have Their Lyrical Moments

The rains begin, bringing the leaves down with it. Roadside gardens lie in ruins as the more tender annuals succumb to the morning chill. An umbrella shields my camera lens. In the half-light, it captures a stern beauty in the outstretched branches stripped of their fall yellows and golds. Mounds of silvered grasses, heavy with droplets, arch against a graying sky. Woodsmoke scatters like mist drifting from the creeks and inlets. My gardener’s heart stores away remembrances of summer past. The tattered leafy carpet glistens underfoot. Fall is passing on a sigh.