A Ballad Of Betrayal

Her twirling leaves on windows tapped,

Inviting me outside.

Unsettled, fall was on the run,

The wayward wind, her ride.

I kicked through autumn’s dying leaves

Though blindly unaware — 

Too awed by her resplendency

To sense I should beware.

Neath murmuring of restless trees,

I hadn’t understood

Those crackling warnings underfoot

Nor creaking of the wood.

In shadowed veil a darkness lurked,

Its chill was in the air.

An evil huddled unobserved — 

’Twas winter hiding there.

From ‘neath the pumpkin’s dying vine,

Between my feet it creeped.

A ghostly, wicked wind arose

And up my back it leaped.

Then mad as eyes of staked scarecrows,

The storm unleashed my fears.

Ol’ winter snaked around my neck

And hissed, “The end is near!”

The sky turned black and thunder cracked.

Trees writhed and heaved a breath.

The wind, possessed like howling ghosts,

Foretold of looming death.

The aspens, with their startled leaves,

Were quivering with fright.

They bent and rose as skeletons

With wounded souls in flight.

And then I saw them up ahead,

My love with my best friend.

They kissed and strolled off hand in hand.

I knew it was the end.

Emotions stripped, I stood there bare —

A trembling skeleton. 

Amid the storm I realized

That winter had begun.

That fateful autumn day, I watched

Two scarecrows walk away,

And by their sides there flew the ghosts

Of fall — and love — betrayed.