Autumn’s wind is filled
with dead leaves,
skeleton spines that
no longer wish for green.
Nature knows the song
of change, fragility of life,
the calendar that drops
its curtain on the third
act of seasons.
Where a mighty oak once
was an umbrella for the deer,
it now stands as barren limbs
to allow frosted sun to reach its roots.
As human hands reach for hot chocolate,
decorate with pumpkins, and celebrate
the first day of sweater weather, trees
listen to the song of geese, bears lumbering
toward hibernation, and the anxious sigh
of Mother Earth wondering if this is her last season.
©Susie Clevenger 2026
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