The Nature of Living on a Hill - Revised

Fall dropped hard and fast
Like a wild fire cooling into embers
And reflected by the maple leaves
A side wind
Slunk in from the north
Shaking leaves
With urgent fingertips
And curling dust devils
Snaked through windbreaks
Stirring life in the crisp fragments

Winter snow showered from the north
Like a hail of feathers
From a snow goose
That stumbled through
My uncle’s cross hairs.
If the wind stopped
The sun glimmered
Like a lighthouse across the snow
Signaling icicles
To make port

Spring, the sly wisp, stole in slow
Creeping up the banks
Plumping buds
With moist fingers
Her breath a cool
Sweet balm for the abuses
Of winter
Or fiery indignation
And battering fists
To pummel her art
Until the canvas is blank once more

Summer breezes
Humid as sweat
Sag through the grasses
Flickering emerald strands
That glitter like snow
In the mid morning sun
And envelope skin
With feathery fingers of light
The heavy perfume
Of sweet legumes
Melting along my senses
Until I belong