These fleeting days

Years since you’ve been here

First step outside, and

The pungency of fallen foliage

Confirms summer is naught

But a fleeting memory

Before first light, a doe

And her fawn

I gently tell them not to worry,

And they don’t, and continue

To lay as I slink by in the dusk

All three of us

More wary of the dark

Than of each other

Here and there a beam

Of light breaks the canopy

Do you suppose one leaf

Asked another to dance

Or that they all joyously

Took to the floor together?

Days like this are reassuring

In the early sunset and

Halting, dew soaked sunrise

I gain confidence

If all around me, green

Can become gold

I am certain that I, too,

Am capable of changing

Yet this season

And that I, too, can

Become something beautiful