Laughing children frolic in the falling leaves
By:  Matt Ferraro

Laughing children frolic in the falling leaves.
Reds and oranges surround.
Last stary night while sitting quietly,
I warmed myself by my fire.
Flames kicking like little fairy feet into the cool autumn sky.
A gentle lady joined me at my fire last night,
Her sobs like a crying baby.
She said her love had disappeared,
He never came home in her vacation dreams.
Her raven hair glinted in the iridescent moon light.
She told me of her lazy summer days with love.
She told me of those eerie shadows in El Paso.
She told me of the new shoes she had received…
Received as a gift from her absent love.
I shivered as the wind blew through this forest.
Lying barren; all so wind swept.
I shivered as she told me of swinging singles of El Paso.
How they danced on the shivering sands of the desert night.
I cried when she told me of her childhood.
Playing with her wooden toys,
Watching a solitary stallion ride away.
I wept when she told me of her adolescents.