Shades of Fall

                                          

                            Shades of Fall

When far, blue peaks are newly cloaked in white
and summer's days have aged from green to gold,
when in the air there hangs a crisp, new bite —
that's when the short-lived days of fall unfold.

Though fleeting, autumn's beauty still enchants
as harvest hues of crimson twirl with bronze.
Leaves leap into the wind in graceful dance,
then gently drop and scatter over lawns.

Swept bare, the bony limbs of trees reach out
and pull gray skies around them like a shawl,
for winter's frosty breath lurks all about
and threatens to subdue the dazzling fall.

As falling snow now gathers through the night,
fall's vestige lies beneath a shroud, dead-white.