Autumn

Autumn

From greens to golds to russet browns

Leaves from their trees

Coming tumbling down

Wind whisking them into drifts, piles and mounds

Falling lightly one by one

Onto heavily sodden ground.

Here water awaits to transform their beauty

Into piles of slippery sludge and yet

Looking up at the trees their branches revealed

Bare skeletons stretched outwards twisted and fragile

Slender stems hint at buds already there

Burgeoning after wild winter weather has had its turn

Enduring cold, snow, hail, rain and gale

The promise of spring awaits us all

Like leaves we too grow, blossom, flourish and fall.

Yet knowing that life will go on and on

Is it a comfort and inspiration for all?

Accepting the good with the bad

This life for us to share

Until our last breath we take on this earth

And then like the leaves composted down

We too shall be part of an amorphous mass

Nourishing new life in turn

Nothing is ending, Nothing to fear

It is just the world turning

Another new year

In a never ending cycle for all of us to see

How we fit into this pattern

Endlessly.