Amber Leaves

I am alone as I wait for you
Toying with colours by the tree,
Slowly undressing fading emerald
Into brittle rustling amber Didi and Gogo
Are nowhere to be seen. With patience

And anticipation I read the longest novels,
I made new acquaintances, endeared by Myshkin
I anguished with and for Raskolnikov until
A bout of pusillanimity drowned my enthusiasm
In Search of Lost Time in favour of bibulous distraction.

I have suffered and marvelled waiting for you,
Enthralled by prismatic games recasting landscapes,
White blankets, igniting fires as I sought shelter
In animals’s skins, I watched water gently seep
Through rocks creating opalescent icicles,

Melting rainbows into streams. Saw humanity await
For Persephone just as I for you, seeding men
Praying gods, talking to leaves, and when she came
With dancing bird flocks bears and ladybugs awoke,
Reindeers swam rivers to reach motley tundras,

Where there were ashes shards of black creosote,
Chrysalises metamorphosed, freeing butterflies,
Fireflies, bewildering multichromatic wonder
The sun shone crescively brighter, hotter I undressed
Reposing skins in cases, waiting for you,

Toying with colours by the tree, fading emerald
Into brittle rustling amber I am surrounded
By lightning and thunder, earths are drenched
Seeding men halted their prayers to cry their crops
Bruised by hailstorms, my plant died, waiting for you.

[Featured artwork: by Jennifer Gelinas]