November Beauti-tone

 Yes, even brown and bronze beneath blue-gray is beautiful...November's brooding beauti-tone.

Where once the painted hill had been

Of sumac red and evergreen

Of golden birch-leaf butterfly

A-glitter beneath sapphire sky

…and emerald-dew and clover-hue

Rushed out to where green brushes blue

November bleeds its beauty-tone

Of brown and bronze and cold, gray stone

The crimson crown of maple-crest

The gleaming gown of willow-wisp

The auburn and the amethyst

Of autumn noon and morning mist

Are gathered in a mixed bouquet

Of moments that are tossed away

The colors on the Painters tray

Are brown and bronze and granite-gray

Fair flowered frock falls from earth’s form

Beneath its sheaf the seed is warm

As sturdy smocks are buttoned tight

Across a girth prepared for white

Our gaze is drawn toward the plain

Where green of grass and gold of grain

Must wait beneath a somber gown

Of gray and bronze and brooding brown

© Janet Martin