For First Fall...

Red sweeps away summer; kindles the hill

It seeps through passers who pause and stand still

Red runs restless fingers through coppice-tress

Undoing the buttons of summer’s dress

And where we raved at the green of its gown

Red raids the tree and turns it upside down

Red ravishes bushes, its brush burns, bold

And splatters gardens with tatters of gold

The silk haze of daisy days dissipates

It glazes webbed gossamer gilding gates

The birth of death’s season shrouded in red

Veils the breath standing twixt living and dead 

Red attracts dreamers; it seduces eyes

Charming spectators to summer’s demise

We gather, exclaim at the flame of farewell

That runs rampant, enchanting dune and dell

And we are betaken, bewitched it seems

Where death masquerades as a red bed of dreams

© Janet Martin