Always Autumn

Into disguised madness behind calm eyes,
She spirals.
Spirals within cobwebs of chaos, she tangles--
Amongst the sticky strands,
Astringed around each sapless hand,
Insidious wires meticulously trail
And grapple every limb beneath her arboreal veil.
Beneath the petals’ mask,
Her buried limbs continue to lack
Any sustenance while sinewy fibers retract
And strain unhealed scabs along her branches bark.
Her sap bleeds and seeps through
Her wooded form until her boughs
begin to snap from their dehydrated joints,
And leave a barren frame disguised above the point,
Where she masquerades.
But beneath her foliage she willows.

by Stacey Lee