December Dusk

Over cold meadow still twilight comes stealing

Over my heart steals the wisp of a sigh

Here in the lull twixt late day and first-evening

I hear the close of a year drawing nigh

Sable surrender as moments retreat

Heart-wrenching, tender and blue bittersweet

Into the abyss of thoughts grave recollection

Spectacular triumphs and failures align

Tuning the echoes of midnight reflection

Time-tempered petals falling from life’s vine

Spiraling sparkle of laughter and tears

Filling the chalice of moment-shaped years

Paramount passion and trivial trouble

Slip like dawn’s dew-drops into the thin air

What is a moment; this silver-blue bubble

Cradling allotments of joy and despair?

Here in the twilight a melody seeps

Down from cloud-gardens to earth-frigid deeps

Rising then falling, the lilt of an hour

Feathers the sod; daylight disappears

The girl is a woman, the seed is a flower

Half-breath relinquishment spills into years

My heart overflows with hellos and good-byes

Here in blue dusk of December’s demise

© Janet Martin