Awaiting Spring by Diane Webster

Autumn leaf dangles
from its slender stem
still attached
to the skinny limb
scratching its way
outward and upward
in ever-concentric rings.

Across its serrated edges
frost collects and expands
in a highlighted whiteness
against a golden background
like clouds forming
images in sunrise sky
until sunshine thaws
the outline, and the leaf
flutters a path to the ground.

The autumn leaf curls
into a fist brittle
with its siblings
even after wind whirls
it away to cling to fence wire;
a chrysalis awaiting
spring birth.

Diane Webster enjoys the challenge of transforming images into words to fit her poems. Her work has appeared in "El Portal," "North Dakota Quarterly," "Eunoia Review" and other literary magazines. She also has a micro-chap published by Origami Poetry Press.