Winter Prayer

By Don Thompson - Buttonwillow, California, USA - 21 November 2014

 

 

How many leaves hold on

with a death grip

after winds one hard week

and frost the next?

You can count them on the fingers

of a cold hand.

But notice that sun,

no longer bothering to warm us

and frugal with its depleted light,

has nevertheless limned them all

with thin gold

so that the leaves glisten

like a few surviving pages

of an ancient breviary.

Wait another day or two until

the last one falls:

The prayer you need to offer

will be written on it.