Sentimental...or Autumn After Dark

Melancholy murmur moves
through woodland’s waning roof

Wind, now wild and overbearing,
now a child, aloof

Summer, sweet, sweet summer,
like a flower-filled mirage

Flickers in the rustle
of fall’s colorful collage

An essence broods, torn between
 the pleasure and the price

Seeking affirmation but
receiving sage advice

Earth is like a festival
 decked in nature’s pizazz

Autumn yards and boulevards
like bars of bluesy jazz

And all of it together chills
 and thrills me to the bone

Like listening to Kenny
on an alto saxophone

I’ll take the ache of farewell
for the sake of hello

Break my heart but linger longer, love,
before you go

Leave me, oh, but leave me wiser
than the morn we met

Grant me the memento
of a day I can’t forget

Let me blush beneath the kiss
you brush upon my brow

Let me be the girl that some think
Time un-twirled somehow

River is a ribbon
of metallic ebony

Carries little leaf-boat
to uncharted destiny

Rain-song stipples puddles,
strums the merlot maple arc

Composing a melody
of autumn after dark

© Janet Martin