October Adrift

Seraphim dwindles

While rebel-wind swindles

The color that kindles

October’s good-bye

Tenderness traces

Earth’s barren embraces

Where blue longing laces

November’s near sigh

Dying day etches

Stark silhouette sketches

On gold, satin stretches

Twixt sky, land and sea

A breath-stealing burning

Of sudden sweet yearning

For Time’s no returning

Ignites poetry

Porcelain sliver

Of opaque moon shivers

Beneath Orion’s quiver

Of star-spangled darts

Virile vexation

Of trust and temptation

Defies explanation

And perplexes hearts

Middle-night murmurs

Time’s black and white summers

Reside in waft-shimmers

Of echoes that sift

As seraphim dwindles

Where rebel-wind swindles

The color that kindles

October adrift

© Janet Martin