November's Exodus (a farewell mosaic)

November exits like a white frosted cake!

Oops! wrong photo!

This is the cake Victoria baked on Saturday!

THIS is November's exodus!

Tonight, the wind raids woodlands stripping leaves that hung aloof 

Ice-pebbles dash black windowpanes and tap-dance on the roof 

And where we had commiserated with earth's brooding bars 

We sense the lowering of lintels laden with white stars 

As if nature was waiting for November’s cheerio 

To deck the halls of hills and fields and boulevards with snow 

Tonight, we sense a keener, meaner tone to After Dark 

We shiver. Gone the melody of leaf-laughter and lark 

The maniacs that hide and bide their time in lofty meads 

Crawl from their sanctuaries and shake out their featherbeds 

They rattle sky-high rafters over countryside and town 

Until earth’s sweeps are swaddled in sheets of soft eiderdown 

The river, a black sateen serpent slithers through the dell 

December holds the door and bids November fond farewell 

Adios until next year; may the days till your return 

Unfold and spill like flowers into Bygone’s phantom urn 

And may the echoes wafting in the wake of morrows met 

Be as pure as the snowflake’s swirling, twirling pirouette 

Tonight we put the kettle on and sip sweet, minty tea

We set sail on book-schooners to lands far, across the sea

We snuggle beneath blankets and count cozy blessings, oh

And thank God for each beauty that earth can never outgrow

Tonight the poet duels with the fuel of a poem 

Tonight the tug of farewell tangles with the hug of home

© Janet Martin 

Tonight we set sail on book-schooners...