A list of November’s happenings

November is:

• Native American Heritage Month
• The month of Thanksgiving
• The month of election day
• The month of Veterans Day
• The month of whitetail deer rut and firearms hunting season
• The month black bears (and others) begin their winter naps
• The month when lakes (usually) develop ice cover
• The last month of meteorological autumn
• The month we return to standard time
• [UPDATE] The month to remember the wreck of the Edmund  Fitzgerald
• The month to be glad you’re not a turkey

autumn flock of tom turkeys

Photo by J. Harrington

What have we missed about  November? We may, or may not, get snow cover this month. Daylight will shrink all month. If you don’t do it year round, today would be a good day to start listing the things for which you will express your thanks on or before Thanksgiving day.

November

By Maggie Dietz

Show's over, folks. And didn't October do

A bang-up job? Crisp breezes, full-throated cries

Of migrating geese, low-floating coral moon.

Nothing left but fool's gold in the trees.

Did I love it enough, the full-throttle foliage,

While it lasted? Was I dazzled? The bees

Have up and quit their last-ditch flights of forage

And gone to shiver in their winter clusters.

Field mice hit the barns, big squirrels gorge

On busted chestnuts. A sky like hardened plaster

Hovers. The pasty river, its next of kin,

Coughs up reed grass fat as feather dusters.

Even the swarms of kids have given in

To winter's big excuse, boxed-in allure:

TVs ricochet light behind pulled curtains.

The days throw up a closed sign around four.

The hapless customer who'd wanted something

Arrives to find lights out, a bolted door.

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