Before Autumn.....

Before summer weeps her last hour away
Before she sleeps in her chamber of gray
Before her broad and glittering smile
Takes a well-deserved rest for awhile….
Before the meadows and wild-flower haunts
Become cold shadows where memory taunts
Before the evening drenched with dew
Bids her golden fronds adieu
Before she fades into the air
Just as if she never were……
Before we feel the dread desire
And yield to autumn’s kindled fire
Before sea-green flows brown again
Across a dull and dreary plain
Before the warm south breezes sleep
Before the snow returns to heap
Her cold blue wishes at my door
I must go and dance once more
Out beneath a trembling sky
That weeps today…..good-bye, good-bye

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Janet Martin