Rock Creek Canyon in the Eastern Sierras. That’s where I’d like to be this week.

The turning time
has come
early 
this year–not yet
mid-September
and flecked leaves 
flash their gilt
at the jades
of summer. Soon
rust
beginning
to flirt 
at the edges
will consume the heart
in a flood of fall.
It is a time, too, for cool
decision, raking
the past, hoarding
heat, evidence
to ashes, shedding remorse,
the trading of one season 
for another.

—Deanne Bayer

Photo credit Mono County Tourism