Late fall, and a strong wind ...

Late fall, and a strong wind has stripped the colors

from autumn’s trees, laying bare naked branches

but for a few brown and faded leaves holding fast,

as we all must, holding fast to ourselves

in the approaching season of ice and cold.

For autumn exposes what lay hidden in summer’s

lushness, an earthiness costumed in green,

unmasked now, darkly seen in the forest of our lives,

confronting us with remnants of life returning

back to itself, our own, cloaked and hidden, laid bare.