Seasonings

"Even in death there is beauty." ~ Marci Perrine
Using this quote as inspiration, write a short story or poem. Do not use this quote directly in your piece. Required words to be highlighted in orange: sensibility, black, grief, happy, plain. You may use the words as they are, or a derivative such as grief/grieves.

Seasonings

Bare black branches scrape grey underbelly of the leaden sky.
Curled leaves, long gone to skeletal browns rustle like loose bones underfoot.
Forest perspectives etched in stark relief - there are no secrets here.
Sensibilities aside, for spring is favored,
frigid air, coffin cold, is embraced.
No grief in the passing, one season to the next,
for the dying times must be precursor to the living.

Simple truth: each stage of living
contains an expiration date.
Happiness, sorrow are but
two sides of scythed scales.

The rut enflames once scarlet leaves go down to grey.
Hidden in plain sight, autumnal buck
stalks his doe: new life begins.

Camouflaged hunter
balances bow, patience and waits
for quartering away shot.
But a whisper, then arrow finds its mark:
buck falls in regal splendor.
Venison to feed the living
for another season.

Cycles spin endlessly
dawn to dusk, sowing to reaping
for we are all but a turn away.
Heartwood lines in fallen oak
tell the history of us all.