Sweet consolation

Beneath my feet
           the fallen leaves
once green
           now gold
now crimsom
           burnt sienna
edges curled and dry
           and crumbling into dust
as the year fades
           We were lovers
bone by bone
           slept through a dream
of unblemished time
           scourged
by the whirling strands
           of her hair
and new anatomies
           that the night brought
to the body bare
           Youth burned
in the mind
           no birth no death
no tangled time
           no sun
candescent
           love alone

John Lyons