October winds tell a story
Through the naked limbs
What sounds like an old fiddlers
Bow drawn across violin strings

Leaves we watch them tumbling
Bouncing along the ground
End over end like something
Burnt and crisp by a fading sun

Floating down into the stream
Their fallen comrades depart
Embarking on a passage many miles
To a waiting coastline by the sea

The hard edge and sharp spikes
From the tall maples strikes your face
Bounce off and swirling around
Us as they slowly drop drifting one by one

Their passage now a testimony
Spoken how in time of tender spring
Now lost and largely forgotten
With all its promise and past glory

All this season is swept away
It too will eventually rot and decay
Pressed under by many of its own kind
A whole canopy of fallen debris

Until a giant mass of nature’s litter
Strewn around and tossed about
Now lies haphazardly and eventually
Each will find a final resting place

Until once again all is covered
Asleep there is a quiet blanket
Of winter snows that roll across
Both fields and forests under its giant cloak