Autumn Leaf Farewell

Image by Zach at Unsplash

When death comes for me
I shall be free,
Rigor shall set its pace
When last sparks peter out in grace.

Adorn me not in jewels
Nor cover the corpse with blooms,
Stage me not in a room
Let there not be gloom.

Worn by temporal pain
I left to dance in the rain;
These invisible scars in my soul
Need no farcical console;
These faces that shed crocodile tears
Had once jeered at my fears.

Let the canopies be my eaves
As I lay beneath amber leaves,
That autumn sheds in grief
When summer is stolen by winter-thief.

As the Earth consumes my flesh
I will be freed of the enmesh,
Of living a life of lie
Trying in futile to vie
For a love that was never mine.

In this season of sentiment
These ephemeral elements ancient,
My essence floats in the air;
Mayhap a draft of despair
Shall stir the fall’s coral
A nature’s adieu floral.

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Written for Eugi’s Weekly Prompt– Autumn Leaves and Free Verse Revolution’s September Writing Prompt– nobody wants flowers when they’re dead.

Other prompts: #3TC– Sentiment & Season

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