Song in Autumn

By Djuna Barnes

The wind comes down the creeping night
And you, my love, are hid within the green
Long grasses; and the dusk steals up between
Each leaf, as though the shadow quick with fright
The startled hare leaps up and out of sight

The hedges whisper in their loaded boughs
Where warm birds slumber, pressing wing to wing,
All pulsing faintly, like a muted string
Above us where we weary of our vows –
And hidden underground the soft moles drowse.


Words: Djuna Barnes (first published in Vanity Fair, September 1923 as "Love Song in Autumn").
Image: "Brown Hare Silhouette" by Elliot Hook.