A Visit From Verglas

Sultry heat is but a memory
Stifling sweat hangs suspended
Blustery breezes
Gusty winds and colder nights
Verdancy gives way to rich earth tones

Exquisite reds, oranges, yellows,
Signal the welcome of comfort foods,
Generous in carbohydrates,
Family meals more often,
Aunts, uncles, cousins, and siblings gather

From one moment to the next,
Days shorten without notice
The sun is in a different place,
Burning less intensely
Nights no longer lack humidity

Sporadic drenching rains,
Wash away the evidence of summer,
Giving the land a healthy drink,
To store for the impending
Bitterness of the cold months

Atmosphere chills degree by degree,
Each week calling,
Each day searching,
For this season’s toil to end
And rest until their time returns.

Trees shed their vibrant wardrobe,
Stripping their limbs and branches bare,
Exposing the canopy, left nude, to onlookers.
Yet no shyness in their exhibition.
The skeletal remains of life still visible.

Abounding colors made way
To browns of decomposition
Fallen foliage clutters the ground,
Covering lawns, clogging gutters
As rains come, dampening the ground,

Decaying loamy smells of dried leaves
Give way to the sour fragrance of rot,
Unnoticed in our busy days,
To the sudden quiet arms wrapping
Around plant, tree, and creature

A sense of foreboding throughout nature,
Animals and insects prepare food stores,
For leaner months are threatening,
Scarcity and difficulty finding
Summer’s abundant cache

The morning air, once filled with birdsong,
Is silenced and stilled
In contemplative emptiness.
If it’s noticed, no one seems to mention it.
Life’s too busy for reflection.

Autumn calls Death forward
Gloom enters the periphery,
Subduing human spirit and emotion
Darkness slinks in with Gloom
To overcome morning’s light

The welcome of bright sunshine, gone
Time offers fewer of her useful hours
Instead, allowing the blanket of night
It’s an incremental shift from daylight
Without requesting permission

She allows the darkness to advance,
Hastier than in months past
Darkness ushers in the shivering
Keeping us inside more hours than out
The change of seasons has settled

Our fires crackle and roar,
Filling the cold recesses of our homes.
Heat soothes our cold fingers and toes
As the fires mesmerize us all
With their licks and dancing flames.

Autumn and winter conspire with nature
Sounding the siren of final transition,
Sanctioning frost to our incredulity,
And quiet slumber overtakes
Land, insect, animal, and man

Autumn is yielded to winter
Leaving telltale evidence
Of unleashed bitter cold,
And glittering visions of white purity
Sparkle in the daylight sun

The last leaf sheds, and winter’s heralded forth
Cold, biting winds penetrate us,
Their bitter promise of no reprieve for months,
Until spring releases nature from the icy glacier,
And from winter’s snowy tortures and pleasures.

Verglas and the Old Man, Winter
Remain inclement visitors for three months
We long for them to vacate,
So sunshine, color, and warmth can return,
Ending this season’s sequestration

Even so, this frozen, dewy vapor
Blankets us in silence, rest, and peace,
A repose for all living things,
Required for the juvenescence
To be brought by spring.

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