Dandelion Smiles

What's left of life's dandelion smiles?

Keen eyes capture

lift-off by gusty winds

dispatching goodbyes

these flights of fall's miniscule celebrations

some see as subtle remembrances

To fields and grasses

these umbrella journeys

fold into Nature's carpet nap

dry and littered with

golds

reds

yellows

secure big brother and sisters

finding rest from summer's dense shrouded past

Veins now brittle still shout their greetings

rainbow curlings

costumed stem to tip

they scurry left and right

knowing their palette's final hurrah

is but a preamble to more trumpeted arrivals

Vigilance awaits these floating waifs

of a child's gleeful exhalation

sending aloft wispy orphans of sunshine

changelings of chance

ever trusting the bounty of unconditional love

Transition

So goes the innocence of Nature's anticipation

while resisting-man regrets summer's past

as if passion needs no rest

Beleaguered and spent

by vacations ended

tears hold at season's doorstep

Back-to-school children poise sad

but still hopeful

Parents plunge into lapsed time at work

resigned to endings as destiny

While singles set up shop

for prowling new security

caving to the Highrise-fortification

power that insists the forgetting of yesterday's

warm sands

fragrant pines

diamond clear waters

Yes

Rushing we go

Begging sunlit emotions stay alive

even as life's gray pallor

enfolds those who resist the cycle's change

Resentment

Imprisons joyful weeping

made dry as summer's carefree moisture and memories

vanish amidst digits and keyboards

screens and orders

Challenged

We roam

from summer's sun and clouds

to rail and street

sidewalk and stairwells

seeing ourselves as ghosts

of Nature's tease-o-rama season

Non coping some hide from coming paths

barely tolerating Time's cool repose

as tasteless sinews of crystal dust

But

Upon tongues made interim dormant

fall will pass in stride for those

whose glass remains half full

For just as winter's respite

nurtures new life into earth's slumber

so too can man's frozen tears

become new tributaries of hope

cascading down faces made bright

by the child in us all

Dandelion smiles

Umbrella journeys

Of life's ever

of forever