Seasonally Effective

Breathe in desperate Autumn leaves
clinging by their tailbones to branches gone increasingly cold
until the skin between their ribs crinkles paper-light
under preemptive winter winds blowing backward through time.
Roots shiver as soil freezes day to day.
Divine messengers quiver amidst the morning mist
before they’re blasted by snow
and offered up to tidal decay.

Darkening sunsets croon harmonic
fluorescent blood, laconic airborne chords
and a God’s evolving falling glory
refracted around the chorus clouds
as citrus and fire and synthesizer. Royally reflected
against a skeleton of desire
sighing forever higher
until life’s crisp current
pushes all the flame away
and only sunlit Spring can say
“Again! The buds will bloom.”