Falling Leaves And Early Frost by Mahbubat Salahudeen*

today marks the first of many dawns i will stand
and glare from my kitchen window
coffee in hand 

& watch dew-eyed as day tears open to light
the sun is merely a bleach-mark
and mist still rests​

---

on windows and windscreens along frost starched 
streets as the rime chocked air 
slashes visibly down 

to a few stifling fingers of breaths. a delicate crusting 
of frost still embraces the leaving 
of a bush; wet & bright--

a tribute to silver, say: the grass has shielded its naked 
green beneath the silver frost of a 
faded january sky. later 

after the sun-kissed afternoon receded, giving away to 
darker nights, leaf fall, stamping feet 
tightly folded arms &

a-i-r-n-e-s-s — you know winter has returned, light is gone
hearth is bare & i felt the first threat 
of frostbite from winter's 

sharp teeth as I closed my door to continue from where I
started; my kitchen window.