A seasonal dirge

The slow drizzle at daybreak
condensation on the skylight

the wet roofs of houses
and the stillness and the silence

The words that are a poem
of themselves their syllables

evoking a moment and a mood
: the actor who aged into the role

of King Lear his face a rough
wasteland of stubbled flesh

September with its misty tableaux
its clouds of ghosts its muffled sounds

a pronounced change in the air
the wilds the storm the wintry night

John Lyons