Old man's beard

is it just my age?
increasingly I value
winter’s soft decay

those last few leaves
revealing tree branches
decorated with lichen

rays of the low sun
penetrating morning mist
shining in hoar frost

in the hedgerows
remnants of summer’s blooms
ragged robin and old man’s beard

gulls and crows picking
at the dead fields, harbingers
of a time of lack

oak leaves are the last
to fall, pallid brown, clinging
to summer’s false hopes

even at midday
mist persists, permeating
tired fields, sad bare woods

a time of quiet
decay and rebirth: I watch
disconsolately
Copyright © | Year Posted 2023

Poem

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