The Day Before Winter

 

Bare branches etched across the gloomy gray sky

an abandoned bird nest teetering on the edge

of a broken limb

Empty as the barren, broken branches

reaching, reaching, reaching

desperately clutching the last of the

brittle, brown leaves

fluttering in the November wind

Then raindrops - slowly at first -

then silently drench the brokenness

of the tree

on the 

Day Before Winter

Memories of broken, barren arms

reaching, reaching, reaching

to clasp the final

remaining

child to my heart

in the abandoned, empty "nest"

that once was "home"

but no one lives there anymore

on this . . . 

the Day Before Winter