Jaye Marie and Anita Dawes

The Lighted Life

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Gawain awakes beneath the tree

That senses show has changed

A star of dawn climbs bark and leaf

And hovers in the cold, clean air

Announcing greater changes lie beneath

——-

A keening on the knowing breeze

A darker taste upon the wind

A fall of wispy, softer skies

As kind October’s shorter days

Play midwife games with knowing eyes

——-

A brittle crispness in the leaves

Whose vibrant green now drains away

Beneath the soil where none can see

The cyclic gift of lighted life

To wait return of sun, and leaf and bee

——-

But sharper still to shorter life

This bitter turning scrapes and spills

The sands remaining of his year

Till headless fate on Green Knight’s cross

Now bartered, lost and marching near

——-

This blighted life that must endure

above the land that gave it birth

Must tighten warmth across its throat