Winter Prayer
By Don Thompson - Buttonwillow, California, USA - 21 November 2014
How many leaves hold on
with a death grip
after winds one hard week
and frost the next?
You can count them on the fingers
of a cold hand.
But notice that sun,
no longer bothering to warm us
and frugal with its depleted light,
has nevertheless limned them all
with thin gold
so that the leaves glisten
like a few surviving pages
of an ancient breviary.
Wait another day or two until
the last one falls:
The prayer you need to offer
will be written on it.