Grounded Transformation

By Emily Zielinski

The birds sing loudly today with the familiar, honey-suckled
melody that tells the world that autumn is afoot.

To walk down the street in late September is
to smell the greenery of the elm transform into a vibrancy
of deep hues that overpower the ordinary grayness of the pavement.

The sidewalks are flowing with the last petals of summer
and now reside under the heaps of leaves that hide
the pinks and yellows of a season past.

Doe-eyed September skies transform into
beautifully sullen faces of October, flourished with freckles
painted in the model of stars and life has begun again.

A rebirth of autumn befalls the latter months of the
year giving breath to deeply wooded forests and
brightly lit homes warm with ephemeral fire

A calm darkness swaddles the world like a
blanket over a newborn, and a quiet tranquility arises
among the fauna that call this place home-

The birds sing a hushed hymn with the scriptural
carol that announces the abrupt arrival of winter.