OCTOBER

October’s misty mystery is shrouding autumn’s fair
Behind the morning’s muslin gauze, a carnival is there
With barrows full of apples and russet coloured trees
A silhouette is all we get, for October likes to tease

She bathes in brooks of silver rain this Goddess of the Fall
Drying off in crunching leaves that now are summer’s pall
Putting on a dress of sheaves, she’ll dance seductively
Her clothing’s slack but the clock’s gone back and it’s much to dark to see

A single shaft of sunlight before the night comes down
Illuminates her ripened lips and hair of chestnut brown
Shaken by the freshening breeze, October tries to hide
Cold suitors wait at winter’s gate, but she’ll never be a bride

October is a mother though, unspoilt by Eve’s first sin
Who else could manage hibernation and tuck tired nature in?
A dormitory of garden beds slumbers now till spring
Hedgehogs sleep where willows weep and geese are on the wing

Crux of light and darkness, October has her moods
Elusive as the elements, definition she deludes
And still she’s all around us, an omnipresent nymph
Weaving mesh across her flesh of a psychedelic tint

She courts the supernatural the night before she leaves
Pumpkins glowing on the porch, bats suspended from the eaves
We don’t know where October goes or where it is she’s been
Her prime was autumn’s golden time. Her death is Halloween