Submitted by Jane Dougherty
Each gust tears a little more of the scenery,
plucking dry orange-peel leaves, one by one
from windy branches, sending them fluttering
like small brown birds.
There were orioles in the trees once,
now robins lord it about the woodpile,
bramble patch shrinks where persistent donkeys graze
And the fox rambles after dark,
and the owls drift in the night,
here and there,
like ships lost at sea.
Morning comes, sometimes misty,
sometimes frosts crunch a bit more of the summer
and we forget how green was green.
Sky rolls in a kaleidoscope of cloudy colours,
where the moon drifts in the daytime,
and the sun wraps itself in pale veils.
No moment is the same as the one before,
no bird flash of wings or fluted call.
Just blink, and the little red deer is gone.
Photo credit: Jan Both – Italiaans landschap met teknaar
Vita Brevis Press. 
I like it. This poem is Very Good and the final three lines are sublime.
Beautiful images of winter. So well done!
Thank you for featuring this poem. Hunters shot six of our little red deer a couple of weeks ago. Gone, no need to blink.
We wish you the best, Jane. At times, life seems indifferent, rich, and in endless flux all at once–we think this poem captured that wonderfully
Thank you. Life is a slippery customer—so much going on and so little we can grasp.
Reblogged this on Jane Dougherty Writes and commented:
This is the poem featrured by ‘Vita Brevis’ yesterday.
Beautiful poem–so much gone in a blink.
Reblogged this on Die Erste Eslarner Zeitung – Aus und über Eslarn, sowie die bayerisch-tschechische Region!.
Reblogged this on Die Erste Eslarner Zeitung – Aus und über Eslarn, sowie die bayerisch-tschechische Region!.
Reblogged this on Die Erste Eslarner Zeitung – Aus und über Eslarn, sowie die bayerisch-tschechische Region!.
Visions that come alive. Lots of color and movement. Well done, Jane.