Autumn Landscape

Blue hues decorate a landscape of gold Auburn grass crunches beneath the scorching sun (It’s unseasonably warm around here) Elements of surprise lie behind every tree Maybe something as dubious as a snake Or a nest of honey bees working tirelessly It’s always the same How beautiful things must grow tired and die while other Younger beautiful things come in and take their place And the cycle is repeated I lie in the scratchy grass and wonder when my winter will come To kill me like the leaves that fall off the trees To kill me like the grass I’m laying on To kill me like the lightening that broke the previous night’s sky And struck a tree, burning it to the ground And yet this landscape is still so beautiful, even amidst the death and decay I’m young and yet I feel that way And I remember that spring makes everything anew And restores the old into young again As if being old can never be glamorous I guess that is the way it is in this world From heaven to dust, just like the snake in the grass.