Forgotten Melodies

 (April's yard echoes with autumn's walnut-leaf percussion)

Last autumn’s leaf

Spirals, soft on the breeze

Returning to rest, lost in time’s russet seas

Slide-show of shadow and sunlight caress

The graveyard of past summer’s stricken tress

And over the dread-locks of winter’s torment

Wandering zephyrs cajole and lament

Budded limbs beckon;

Eager for the sigh

Of leaf-song at midnight’s half-moon lullaby

The last snow recedes to north-shaded inclines

Sadness and gladness together entwines

Ten fingers folded in tender embrace

Where moments employ simply to erase

The thrum of bare feet

Echoes on the still grass

The pond is a window of sun-shadow glass

Where once childish innocence shattered its gleam

Before adolescence lures with ethereal dream

And once more the leaf spirals soft on the breeze

An eighth note in forgotten melodies

© Janet Martin