Prelude to winter

Spring made you unfold your splendor.
While bird eggs hatched one by one,
little beaks squeaking for sappy worms.

Your lush green survived the summer,
no caterpillar took a nibble out of you.
You gently waved in the wind, rustling.
While the sun set sooner and sooner.

While magpie babies grew up to be
the little thieves they are by nature.
Beady eyes more than once stole
a glance at your morning dew necklace.

One day the spiders came, tiptoeing
on your speckled goldening body.
Their webs didn’t catch you nevertheless
Loose you came, drifting down slowly.

There you lay now, rotting on the ground.
Fallen, discarded, stepped on and dying.
Soon to be swepped away by autumn storm.
One last cry of color before you’re gone.