Set between the first fraternal sisters of

Sanguine Summer and wan Winter

The crisp of autumn’s air begged for warmth

But cautioned of the frosty withering to come

The old homestead was six years abandoned

Long sold and forgotten by the buyer, she waited

Standing not as tall or as straight, she bowed to me

As I set foot upon her tree-filled green once again

Kim and the boys joined me but they were visitors

I was the one coming home again, to where I played

To where I buried a trove of treasures and tragedies

To where my old friends, cats, dogs and birds, laid

It was cool and still, an oddly windless October day

I was full of grief for seeing how the vines and trees

Had overtaken the chimney and caved in the roof

I was anxious to see the fence was gone, all set free

It was then I stepped to the place where pets slept

The windless day was no more! I was then greeted!

As if the fur and feathers flew upward, the wind rose

Not from the sky, but a whirling from the earth below

I stood still. None other witnessed this welcoming

The leaves lifted around me in a spiral and spoke

Purring, barking, chirping, spinning a mystic mearing

Vibrating the ground through my feet to my brow

Turning, as if to say, hello - I was home, not to stay

Returning, why did I have to go? Why was it this way?

Dilapidated, forsaken, a hearth left to nature’s grip

Windows broken for the birds to nest in my old stead.