Invasion

Leaves crackled bright beneath booted feet,
leaving trees bone grey, bared
to the sky.  Butternut squash laid by
pulp to shelter and feed precarious seeds
forming within.  Husks thickened
on the last crop of corn; then the stalks,
stripped, dried tall and hollow in the fields.

Corridors swelled with children
at one shrill of a bell,
emptied at another,
silence locked down
by the latch of classroom doors.
Everywhere, people moved
in steady beats.

As night prowls beyond campfire flames,
so winter howled and paced,
perilously close and cold, waiting in siege.

Coyotes, wolves, lean mountain lions
felt cold in their teeth,
wind in their bellies;
a squirrel clawed blood
from the back of his brother
scrabbling acorns from the frost.

At last, winter stormed and tore, furious,
through futile walls, brutal, biting;
from all directions, against all order,
declaring the world his domain.

by Kelly Vaughan
November (?) 1997

back to Departure:
Original Poems by Kelly Vaughan