It's a mysterious season of mists!

Autumn presents itself
To my mind's eye -
In a colorful dance
Of infinite splendor

In a mysterious play
Of life and death

I tread softly a leafy path
And think to myself:
"In this perplexed world
People stand to the right
And part to the left -
Launching words of flame
At fleeting images and shadows
Mistaking dreams for reality"

But as I sit upon a stone
To contemplate this gray mist,
Trying to count the unaccountable
Leaves of fall, I get the uncanny
Feeling that life is often twisted
Down deep in its wicked roots -
Mired in the mud and blood
Of the innocence that is slain
Day in and day out -
Throughout time immemorial

Life is a brief affair,
Lasting no longer
Than a severed leaf

Unfolding in early spring
Budding to leaf in green fertility
Only to turn into the spectral
Shades of autumn - waiting
Waiting for the winds of fall
To sweep us up into the sky
There to wander until sleep
Comes upon us with its purple glow
As we placidly drift to rest
Upon the cold, wet moss
Of a silent stream's embankment

Are we not also like leaves
Sinking, sinking backward
Into the dark, wet soil
Of a mist enshrouded day?