The last kiss of youth

First rains of Autumn came today

A soddening mist of cold

Making rivulets that tracked paths

Made by piling leaves

One upon the other

Racing to join each other in death

 

Oh leaves,

What is it that makes you fall so?

Is it cold wind that vies

With the waning sun?

To chase and choke the life

From the slowly dying trees’ branches

And your last releases from those

Already blistered by summer’s wrath?

 

We build the bonfires of spring’s youth

Watch the blaze burn away our sins

Smelling the earthy smoke

And your hair smells of the burning

And I bury my face in it and gather it in my hands

And turn my face from the fire’s heat

Lose myself in your browns that are touched with grey

 

Is it like birds fallen from nests?

That we too are destined to lie broken on paths

Then that rain runs between us

Until we slowly come away to the earth

Nature will speak the last words

Whisper to us until we settle

One upon the other waiting for winter’s chill

The kiss that first frost brings

Our lips blue and numb with the cold

Until we sleep; safe and cosseted

In banks of the crystal snows

And then I shall touch your face no more

Trace the lines of smiles around your eyes

I shall kiss them closed so gently

And lay down next to thee

 

--william paris