petiole

First 

days of spring

Buds peek

To melting snows

Warming faces

Alive renewed

All the earth inhales

Welcome rebirth

Reborn

Warmth grows

Bud unfolds

Breezes caress

Encouraging the display

Green unbridled

Unaltered

Bright clean

Expectancy

Unleashed

First  
heat licks at doorsteps

Sunlight gentle

Now quickly burns

Searing

Piercing

Longest day

Met with hottest night

Storms bluster

Strong grasp on branches

Refusal  to be deterred

Verdant darkens rich

Lush velvet turns leathery touch

Toughens as elderly skin

First 

whisper of chill

Icy kisses new and welcome

Yet bittersweet

They know fate calls

Dying day nigh 

warmth cedes slowly

Gracefully fall

Coolish day

Coolish eventide

First 

hint of hues

Altered barest

Ruby mist

A drip a drizzle

Jeweled dots in greenest scape

Arise to school bell’s peal

Sweaters

Hot Cocoa mustache

Sprinkles of children’s laughter

Tradition old

Memories new

First falling

Dangling’s release

Garnet amber

Ochre rain

In sunlight clear

Chimney wafting

First 

remains

Their splendor sweet

Vibrant warmth

To the eye

Fills country mile

Not on skin sultry touch

But on hearts

Leaves last gift

Crunching gems underfoot

Scattering swirling

Piles gather

Fistfuls thrown 

musty smell

Rich soft on the ground

Dust to dust

Molding decay

Bed where

Death begets

life