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Autumn reconsidered

dead%20pines%2C%20fall%20colors-small.jpg
Routt National Forest, Colorado
photo by Sharon O'Toole

Autumn 2008

Cottonwoods show sparkling,
Leaves dusted with gold,
Like Midas’ hand
Grazed them and left
Burnished shimmers
On the green.

Oak brush shines orange
And brown and shows
A strange iridescent glow.
Autumn’s brush has touched
And waved its wondrous wand
And brought its magic.

Chokecherries hang so heavy
They draw my guilt
For I know I will not pick them,
Simmer them, stir sugar within
Their rich syrup
As I did with my mother.

But the pines are not green
But red like the oaks
And the chokecherries
And the Serviceberries.
Pine beetles make a mockery
Of autumn colors.

Aspen, once so golden
As to bring molten lava
To mind, pouring down draws
And searing the senses.
Now fight aspen blight
And stand leggy and brown.

It takes some getting used to.

berries%2C%20Cottonwoods-small.jpg
Unpicked chokecherries
Home Ranch
photo by Sharon O'Toole

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The opinions expressed in the Western Folklife Center's Deep West online journals are those of the online journal participants and not the Western Folklife Center. The Western Folklife Center does not moderate these journals and as such does not guarantee the veracity, reliability or completeness of any information provided in the journals or in any hyperlink appearing within them.

About Pat & Sharon O'Toole

Sharon O'Toole
Pat and Sharon O’Toole are ranchers in the Little Snake River Valley near Savery, Wyoming, right on the Colorado-Wyoming border. They raise cattle, sheep, horses, dogs and children. Pat “immigrated” from Florida in 1970. He attended Colorado State University, where he met Sharon when both worked for the campus newspaper. Sharon grew up on their ranch, where they live and work with her father, their daughter, son and granddaughter (soon to be grandchildren!). Pat is a “water buffalo” and has served in the Wyoming House of Representatives (1986-1992), on the President’s Western Water Policy Review Advisory Commission, and is the current President of the Family Farm Alliance, which advocates for farmers, ranchers and irrigators. Sharon is an author, poet and journalist. She writes extensively on Western issues and is a columnist for “The Shepherd” magazine. Pat and Sharon are the parents of three children: Meghan, 27; Bridget, 26; and Eamon, 20.
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