There stands Mother Nature

Stripped naked of her foliage

Old man Winter pulled a thread

From her beautiful fall dress

Slowly the patterns fell unraveled

With the colors falling to the ground

She shivers now in the coolness

Of his frosty breath of bitterness

There is no compassion from the sun

As it trails off with its warmth

Arthritic tree fingers gnarled and rigid

Stiffly raised toward a winter sky

Animals hide and turn away

As she now shivers in shame

Looking about her ruined theme

At the barren bleakness of her loss

She rushes now far away

To regather her dignity

Old man winter shall do his best

To decimate her beautiful soul

He will drive out the residual warmth

Left from her tender giving heart

Old man winter forces his cold cruelty

Upon everything, making them huddle

And cling to the memory of warmth

Creeping forward frigidly

Laying waste to warmer days

Feeling triumphant with his gain

Yet he knows that

Mother Nature shall return

To relinquish his frozen grip

And restore her rightful rein.