beautiful release

when nights stretch long and
winds grow chill, her sacrificial
rite begins, the tender tease
of each lush leaf, to blush from
frost-flutter kisses plunging
to a stunning denouement…
a million tiny deaths sweetly
released to dance on breezes,
gently sinking, soon consumed.

would that I could learn
to let go just as gracefully,
in vulnerable, abandon
to embrace the tingling thrill
of nakedness for all to see
to shed all vain encumbrances,
to emulate an autumn tree,
I might at long last know
the bliss of being truly free.

~ kat ~ autumn 2015