Everything Changes in November

A Work in Progress
153

Woolly apple aphids swarm in mid-October

Wings glinting in the slanting sun

When plants still flower but fruits don’t set

Tomatoes ripen, indoors, now harvest’s done

Orion hunts in the dark before dawn

With his dogs and without a gun

On Earth robins flock and rob and raid

Taking for granted whatever Nature made

Afar there is war with both sides bombarding

Here’s there’s betrayal, treason in plain sight

Over there, there’s courage fighting for what’s right

Here there’s peace, uneasy, spoiling for a fight

He’d seen those insects he first thought midges

Through a window standing at the sink

They were not near water so further enquiry

Found a species of aphids most apt

To apple trees and plums even mountain ash

Everything changes in November

Dick Russell © Richard M Russell

                       2026