Witch Hazel

A minuet in miniature of yellow
blooms form after the cruel frosts
destroy all other blossoms in the garden
that colours the leaves of other trees
dropping them in cluttered chaos
but leaving the precious flowers
of the witch hazel to linger on
into the winter of November
as we bundle in fleece and down-fill
I am the hazel blossom
coming late to beauty
when others have faded from age
and fallen to the hoar frosts
that pull the life from us

© 29 October 2009
Cynthia Ryder
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