October

There is a wistfulness to October with its mellow sunlight and fading summer blooms.  Flowers take on a desperate, anemic look as days grow shorter and nights cooler.  Bask in an achingly beautiful Indian summer day, and tread on frost-encrusted grass the next.  As if to compensate for felling summer’s glory, October arrays the landscape with gaudy, golden chrysanthemums and flashy orange leaves, a poor disguise for impending demise.

            I have lost so much to October.  I hold my breath until its burnished beauty fades safely away.  Too many loved ones have departed this earth, choosing to leave in the bittersweet days of autumn, avoiding the chill of November and the “bare ruined choirs” of winter, leaving me to cry amidst scarlet foliage.