October's First-frost Morning

Is there anything fairer than a zinnia dipped in stars

Or blades of grass bedecked in glass drizzled from heaven-jars

There is no upper-lower class when nature dons the robe

Of first-frost morning as it gilds the hemline of the globe

Lo and behold, the world is silver-gold with fragile sheaf

Where diamonds by the billion garnish lowly sprig and leaf

Dawn is a crystal temple, we the worshipers that bow

Beneath the Lordship of a love that lavishes earth’s prow

Soon the boon of new morning will melt fall's svelte sheen of frost

A picture of time’s taking to which everything is lost

But in this course of moment-force heaven unveils its bars

In autumn-first-frost-mornings when God dazzles earth with stars

© Janet Martin