Temporum Autumnus

It starts with a single leaf,

The first casualty; it is dropped

And it falters to the ground.

Next, the breeze is interlaced

With crisp and cutting chills

Which blows astride the land.

Meanwhile, the Sun recedes, retreats

Lessened and shortened

In both lux and calor.

Creatures of the land, frantic

Gather fare and ready themselves

For their impending dark famine.

Returning to the leaf,

It has been joined now by its brethren

Dozens, hundreds of crisp leaf-corpses

Litter the still-green grass

And the once-green trees wither;

Monuments to their fallen foliage.

The spell is now broken;

Aestas has concluded, and

From garden to grove, from field to forest

Copper hues mark the changed Earth.

Bare branches and slumbering bears

Play the long game of waiting.