In autumn, for which I greatly yearned (A haiku)

autumn comes gently
a blessing for which I longed,
frost in the morning.

clear air and soft sky
blue days, grey days, and yellow
ripe-tinted palette.

lime trees bear fat fruit,
dresses float on lines, greedy
for modest noon sun.

farewelling summer
we soak our bones in sleep, born
cool, sweet and dreamless.

each day, evening
comes a little sooner, light
dimpling deep purple.

winter edges up
hinted in stormclouds, in wind
with ice in fingers.

a pause, this, between
neon summer and the cold
of silent July.

a time to bake cakes,
eat stone fruit, drink tea and smile
suspended mid-fall.

each time it comes, we
welcome it, open-armed, this
littlest of deaths.

each, forecasting gold
and the end of gold as well
last exhalations.

the year ages, while
we breathe in, out, each tendril
mingling us with stars.

- Kathy, 26/3/13