My Gifted Life

Daylight comes in smaller pieces
Frosty mornings harvest time
Apple cider from the presses
Autumn time
Again

Around a sunny orchard screams
Tiny children running round
Gather apples while ye may
Summer’s winding down
Hayrides

Gray clouds gather, wet the weather
Musty smells of earth and leaf
Brilliant flowers of the maples
Make us bowers large and fleeting
Overhead
Soon to pass

As the season pass the weather
Grows ever colder
Bundle children extort their candy
Ghouls and goblins
Frightening

Pumpkins sadly watch the work
Gathered leaves no pile to shirk
Bags and bags it never ends
And surely it will come again
New England

A last respite a harvest table
Crispy skin the family there
Mashed potatoes and stuffing gobbled
Warmth and laughter made and shared
Thanksgiving

Wild the winds blow in December
Dark the night it lingers there
Bright the lights we have to ward
The evil spirits drawing near

Cheery warmth from the cold
Eiderdowns and fires bold
Gathered round the family hearth
Stories told and tickled toes

Brandied eggnog and mulled cider
Makes the cheeks all rosy glow
But at last he comes there’s no denying
Old man Winter