The fall has taken its toll
the last leaves barely hanging on
skeletal in silhouette
the wind blows right through them
their fragile remains curling and crackling
slowly breaking apart at the mercy of the winds
their brittle fragments are carried away
in a sudden blustering gust
with an absence of opposition
they comply with the will of the season
leaving behind a barren wilderness
where only their echoes still linger in the shadows
and magnify the beauty of loss
© Ann Bagnall
Annie's Poetry 