The All That Matters in the End

    
"If her ill dying be not on her own head, then on whose?"    
 -- a rhetorical question      
   
*    
   
The fall appears upon a chill    
autumnal in a flurry's sting    
around a withered daffodil    
beneath a fading swallow's wing,    
   
yet oft as well in summer fair    
the fall appears upon a chill    
within a storm-swept evening air    
sly slipping o'er a window sill,    
   
or near a tiny whippoorwill    
in springtime ere a roseate dawn    
the fall appears upon a chill    
of footprints on a frosted lawn,    
   
and in a wintry rasping low    
deep somewhere down a dying ill      
beside a baby's grave of snow    
the fall appears upon a chill.    
   
*    
   
a dedication of Respect  
for  
the Prevention of Unnecessary Pain  
   
a revolving helios quatern menippean satire on  
motherhood    
   
march, 2023 -- a chill    
still in the mourning air