The Duchess of Malfi

Through the window
          I see the bushes heavy
with bright red berries
          such bounty at which
the birds will peck away
          until the fruit is stripped
the pond frozen over
          and winter is upon us

This is nature’s theatre
          and so the cycle repeats
playing endlessly
          from plenty to poverty
and how the mighty fall
          and how without love
our lives are a kind
          of nothing

John Lyons