Skeleton-trees wave

While the wind whips dead leaves

Wood smoke scents the air.

–

A half-moon drifts

Across wintry sky.

Trees become monsters.

–

Over us the stars

Glitter laughing witnesses-

Reach up and hang there!

–

Fall’s crispness compels

Apples to tumble from trees.

Worms make the journey.

–

Ice blocks the rivers.

Look! A duck frozen there.

Nature, no mercy.

–

The garden spiders

Fold their black spindly legs,

Die, all work now done.

–

Come kiss my warm lips

Cup my breast in your rough hand,

Growl into my mouth.

–

I chase one red leaf

Across dry and brittle grass

Juice of summer gone.

–

I come to the end

My life being no different.

It was as is now.

–

Pale lavender sky

Balances the moon and sun

The scale shifts to night.

–

Leaves, branches, litter

Torrential rains wash them gone-

Did they ever…