Season-song

Autumn’s aria sweeps a stage

Of milkweed pod and purple sage

Early the lamp-light circle spills

As twilight veils the ruddy hills

Each house along the boulevard

At dusk, seems like an old postcard

Until I almost smell the sigh  

Of wood smoke climbing to the sky

Where autumn like an umber bell

Tolls to the dark, farewell, farewell

The dance of youth and innocence

Must soon bear its deliverance

For moments, soundless as the leaf

That falls, will soon unveil their grief

And we of more and lesser days

Wander at autumn dusk, the ways

Where thought alone can see our feet

Trample the path of bittersweet

And past sweeps like last summer’s wave

Across Time’s moment-metered grave

The song of autumn leaps, then weeps

Where lazy summer laughter sleeps

We spread our fingers but the breeze

Fills them with murmured memories

Of musky plum and sun-kissed peach

And bare-feet footprints on a beach

As sea-song sweeps its empty shore

And weeps for Time’s for-nevermore

The autumn darkness strums a tune

Of winter coming far too soon…

© Janet Martin