Fall

The leaves begin to burn

Turning unbridled green

Back to the auburn embers of our Falls

Sun ripened leaves burst yellow, orange, red

Dying, dying, dying, dead

Explosions followed by the deafening silence that reaches us all

At some point, we all fall to our knees and crawl

Like worms

That’s how we learn

Do you hear your mud mired conscious call?

Bidding you build up your walls

Follow nature’s lead

Tourniquet the bleeding

Lean into the molting soil’s change

Rearrange the comfort of her sun-drenched days

Bid farewell the lullabies of the mild, lukewarm rain

For winter storms will come

Whether you are ready for them or not

And soft, sweet petaled flowers tend to rot

Beneath the cold, wet, heavy frost of your Decembers

Remember, Remember, Remember

My forewarning to you

Dear, sweet devil-headed doll

Hearken the foreword of the Fall

You may harden your walls

Before the snowfall hardens earth

And you will see

There will ever be rebirth

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© 2021 A.L. Garcia. All Rights Reserved.

A.L. Garcia lives in Massachusetts with her loving husband and two spirited children. She spends her days reveling in the chaos of her babes, writing, reading, and balancing other obligations, as many mothers do. She also handles marketing/PR for Quill & Crow Publishing House. She began writing poetry as a youth as a way of coping with abusive family dynamics. She joined the writing community in August of 2020, after independently publishing a personal narrative detailing the abuse she endured as a child. She is a veteran of the U.S. Army and studied Sociology and Social Science at Towson University. She has two poetry collections out, Broken Things and Broken Heart Mosaics, is featured in all the Crow Calls Volumes, and in Ravens & Roses: A Gothic Women’s Anthology.