MY POIGNANT SEASON

Autumn is a nostalgic time for me. I have more than eighty autumns committed to memory--they cover a lifetime from childhood’s innocent freshness to ripe maturity’s reflections.

This season reflects my emotions—bright and high-spirited with flashing color, yet somber with falling leaves tossed in the wind and the frost and chill of the pending approach of winter.

Autumn was the happy season of my marriage over sixty years ago.

Autumn was the poignant season sixteen years ago when my husband left so quietly and unexpectedly for his heavenly reward. God’s call to him came in the “season of the falling leaf.”

I dedicate the second poem to Ted, my husband for forty-six years, father of our four wonderful sons of whom he was so proud, grandfather of ten precious grandchildren, many of whom he never met, great-grandfather of six, all of whom he did not meet.

LATE OCTOBER

Leona Choy

Late October:

temperamental days

bluffing me, mocking me

with teasing, wistful

coquettish ways.

Lingering memories:

of high July

blazing sun

and summer fun

are tossed on the run

but mixed with

frosty ecstasies.

Reminiscing time:

casting a chill

as winter steals

with cold appeals

slipping finally

into November's prime.

********

FALLING LEAF

Leona Choy

In the season of the falling leaf

my falling tears splash hot

upon my lonely pillow

in the dark night of my quiet grief

as I reminisce for what might have been

but can no longer be:

I bow to God’s decree.

Nevertheless—I can’t suppress

the tears from the depths of me

that flow silently

from a heart severed from my love

like the autumn leaf turned brown

detached from tree-life

floats to the ground without a sound.

***********

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