Pumpkins

Pumpkins

With skin a sallow orange
and carved in rictus grins
We start our march through autumn
and once more... it begins

With costumes at the ready
as nights begin their falls
A brief reprieve, an eddy,
the flow of time, it calls

It hails hearts left weary,
weary with the change
So seasonal yet dreary,
such shifts of pace, so strange

Sketched with leaves strewn, copper,
collecting in the bowers
Stretched out limbs, lost... laid bare,
left unclothed for the hours

The hours that are taken,
the hours we receive
The daylight that's forsaken,
lost in shrouds of leaves

With darkness rapid, falling,
closing out the year
and yuletide soon calling,
falling with our fears

Fears that have stood too long,
fears that we fell...
short of where we could belong,
short of... who can tell?

Hitting home in heartlands strong
where 'wants' rule over 'needs'
In line with where such souls stand wrong,
... so vulnerable we bleed

As fireworks prove fleeting, fast
flying through such sky
Kindred ships, scarce meetings, past
explosions late... the cry

Weeping, silent in the black
with tricks spent in the night
Invisible, to things we lack
with treats long out of sight

'midst seasons constant turning, tight
the candle wax grows thin
Whilst tealights stand, long burning, bright
... behind a pumpkin's grin