Layers of autumn --
Red and sugar maple leaves
Heaped into a crisp carpet;
Layers in the line of sight --
First, thin, black trunks,
Between them translucent,
Almost glowing, yellows and pinks,
Then more bare trunks,
All finally fading into a watercolor
Pool of orange, yellow, and red.
There is a vertical texture
Of near to far, from leaves dangling
Close from branches, to the farthest
Treetops, increasingly bare.
I take these into my eyes
In long, slow draughts,
Knowing that though I might see
Another fall, it will not be
This layered moment,
Rich in color and decline.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

by HF Stein 

Layers of Autumn