Mid-November

Fall lingers even here in the north country. I find it hard to reconcile bare-branched trees with the warm weather that has hallmarked our days.

Mid-November

Fall pulled a fast one,

absconding with all the foliage

while we reveled on picnic shores.

Leaves drooped, orphaned underfoot

until streets of naked trees jolted our gaze.

But nature thieved more than raiment

pinching extra days for a summer

grown disastrously fat, filching our sense

of seasons. Only light wraps at sundown;

we crawl into night exposed.

Marilyn Aschoff Mellor