Fading grass gleams low in yellow light
fluffed-up squirrels dig and disagree
quiet mushrooms shoulder fallen leaves
brown and fallen
gold for a day, -- yesterday

russet cranesbills startle, and disown
their other season
before the soggy moth-webs
clustered naked twigs

curving fronds of white anemones
earnest little faces bent in morbid fascination
as all around, gathered to the distance
twisted in their minor throes of death
lie leaves,
collateral damage of the promised spring.