Fall Rose

Fall's cool dryness sieves 

through summer's woozy melting crayons of color

Sweating out their humid glory in drips, 

then downpours.

I awaken to the red, green and pink showers

dissipated into the brown-gray mists of autumn.

---

Now I feel the loss of flowers. Yet, 

among the wrinkled spotted brown leaves, 

A red velvet sniper lit from inside - 

a magnificent crimson maniac.

exults on a battlefield lost.

Eyes closed, I inhale its blooded, bolded laughter.

Soon, October's tempered tones will drown the flare, 

But not today.

Today, the red rose rules the seasonal struggle.

---

But tomorrow's colder battlefield brings

an unhappy casualty.

A crimson petal will hang,

then

detach -

the forlorn genesis

of the rebel rose's

timeless,

fated 

Fall.