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• Heidi Shepley, Grade 12, Lambton High School
• Poetry
• 2001

2nd in the 'Believe It Or Not 2001' competition

As a child basking in my youth,
I dream of gallant Princes,
On silver stallions galloping,
In flight from monotony’s grasp.
Cypress arms beckon me,
I hear calls from tunnelled foliage,
As slender and shapely trees,
Lean in a persuasive archway.

Willows hang in droopy nonchalance,
Restless in the wind.
In morning sunlight,
I walk under autumn’s splendid shower.
My crown, warm from the hug of a woollen beanie,
Feathered fingers of the willow tickle my head,
Brushing past my ears and whispering rustling secrets.

An autumn tree sheds its leaves,
The golden finery adorning its limbs.
Fall in yellow sighs amidst an autumn spread of flame.
Once a gallery of blaze, its ignited dress falls.
Autumn shivers with the winter wind.

Just a bare impostor stands,
Now stark against this fleeing season.
The last leaf plucked,
And the sun hurries away with encroaching shadows.
Leaves, in a seasonal farewell dance across the dewy carpet,
Blown by the breath of the wind.