Shatter

Autumn's brittle leaving shivers;

fine-spun glass

suspended in the space between sighs -

it cracks translucent.

Cold spilling slow as splintered thought

to stretch creaking fingers

around a slumbering world

curling breath against the fleeing dark.

Now comes the slowing of the year

bearing winter's tender weight,

stepping softly into hidden places:

beneath the bending leaves

or in the hollow by the lake

where shadow cradles cold

against the thin bones of morning -

she wears her cloak of stars too cold to touch:

stitched from threads of silver.

Beauty belies fragility

in this delicate trespass -

a world held captive

in shards of lace

crystalline

that unravels at the fracturing

of sun's first light -