Autumn Meets Winter

Autumn Meets Winter

The path is spent,
Flooded with frail yellow leaves,
Charred with the shadows that still linger
From every storm and piercing battle,
Each lie scattered, dragged,
And she stands still amidst it all,
Buried in the suffocating gathering
Of her friends.

Each crease is their tender smile, and she waits
For her family to join her
Along the path where the howls agonize darkly,
And the dimness circles around her pale eyes.

The wind- the executioner-
Ruthless- silently attacks,
And all the golden friends quiver in fear
While she stands, her face translucent and vacant.

They twirl, they flutter,
Her memories plummet down to join the masses
Of torn, crumpled ashes, and
She stands, obliterated with azure scrapes
As each tattered leaf greets her,
Gliding by on its way down
To the crowds of comrades, around and inside
Of her always yearning heart.

Her feet are firm, yet crawl into her grounded past,
And when the last amber leaf descends-
She closes her eyes, a single salty tear is shed,
And the throngs of leaves liquefy and shimmer,
Draining her blood, casting a frosty scarlet glow,
So that the river finally transmits her outstretched arms
Into the frigid emptiness of death’s closing door.