I had a dream about the turning of the season…

It began with rain, for the unpoetic reason

that it rained.

I found myself in a land of clouds and shadows…

With the water all around me, I danced barefoot in the shallows…

With the ravens.

In a dress of autumn gold, I tried to stay above the surface…

And there wasn’t any music, and the waterscape was wordless…

But I danced.

I felt the cold sting my shoulders…

Felt the world sing for harvest…

Knew the flowers and the queen of spring would die…

In the heart of the darkness, love grew strong, hard, and heartless…

And my friends betrayed my trust and walked away…

I danced away.

Autumn wings made of paper…

Short the wick, summer’s taper

Bent me low: in the gale, I could not fly…

Though the storm screamed “despair!” I forgave my betrayers…

But it left me raw and outcast in the rain…

I kissed the rain.

I kissed the rain, and I let the ice flow through me…

In the soaked and silent landscape, I felt autumn like a church key….

Pry me open…

I spun through gold…

tasted white…

and turned to midnight…

Felt a heaviness above me, hard with bone and graced with firelight…

Crowned with candles.

Oh, the long dance toward winter…

Rain to ice fell like splinters…

Sliced the light: rays of darkness heard my cry…

Built me back into ashes…

Lit by flame, lightning flashes…

And I carved a new sceptre out of pain…

I love the rain.