Falling Fires

• Bethia May, Grade 10, Dubbo Christian School
• Poetry
• 2017

Excellence Award in the 'Write Here Write Now 2017' competition

Oh how the leaves fall in Autumn
The fiery palleted feathers of the forest
Spiralling, tumbling like liquid fires towards river's chill
Caught in the golden rays of a dappled forest sun
To fly, to fly away

On dancing liquid, they glide like fallen fires
Down and down to where the clearing waits, silent and breathless
Their erratic flight throws them from their joyous freedom
Onto banks of mossy emerald
To wither, to wither away

Fire turns to earth, reds and golds turn to orche and mud
Life fading to an eternal wait in deaths clamped embrace
Veins appear, veins bloodless and without nature's paint
Until leaves of fallen fire are a withered corpse's shell
To crumble, to crumble away

Oh how life ends, so bittersweet, when the leaves fall in Autumn