November Dusk Nocturne

 It's been a dark November so far...weather-wise and news-wise!

So many senseless shootings! So much Sorrow!

Sight slips from windows where early dark seeps

Through scraggly branches devoid of their tune

Earth is a stage where its celloist sleeps

Gone is the crooner of sunny high noon

Farewell feels firmer beneath the dark moon

Destiny hovers beyond the black veil

Felling the vistas we know but now guess

Hush-a-bye, clover and wild-lupine grail

Pouring impressions upon thought’s caress  

Like hills that ache in naked loneliness

Smiles can grow brittle with too little sun

Whiles can seem longer after gathered sheaf

Darling, a doggerel leaps where a gun

Severs a life from the limb like a leaf

Leaving the mean-whiles of Love rocked with grief

Sometimes seduction maneuvers the mind

Making us willing to yield to the Taunt

Better to think twice; not leap hunger-blind

Into the arms of impetuous Want

Consequence writes with a resolute font

Sight slips from windows where dusk’s early dark

Seeps through stark branches in gossamer flow

Somehow the music-man has lost his spark

Gone is the lullaby of leaf and bough

All that remains is a whisper of snow

© Janet Martin