100 Word Challenge - Beyond

What follows is offered in response to Velvet Verbosity's 100 Word Challenge. The challenge, this week, is "Beyond".


Leaves float by on swirls of wind
Green gone and the flourish of life
Trees gone bare and stark
 Looking like grey old men
            arms upraised and begging

Leaves float by and fall to ground
On grass long brown and dormant
The new fledged birds have flown away
South, to familiar places
            they've not been before

Leaves decay and feed the Earth
Under a tablecloth of snow
Rich repast for worms and such
The critters burrow deep
           beyond the reach of Winter cold

Trees are felled, cut to cords
Hearths are warmed, hovels cozied
            beyond the reach of Winter's cold.     Ndinombethe.