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cold air swirls

the wine moon rises

an equinox, sign of decay

and new birth

a whirlwind sweeps leaves,

bright as gold and red as murder-blood,

across a vast forest plane

in the valleys between ageless mountains...

the ancient and eternal autumn

shepherd of world's shedding skin

and the timeless season dusk

as Algiz inverts upon itself

timeless nightly dusk

and permenant rotation

the cycle of eternity

a fire starts in the heart of turning time

a burning ember of will

and a blazing spirit of night...

the blaze soars above the flame-hued forest,

amongst the turning ghost of autumn

within the endless and collective dream,

a soul buffeted in the astral gusts

trees sing and sway in turn,

the wind blows in sync with

pumping blacksmith's blows,

the guttering flame of autumn

fanned for consumption,

and brought to an unnatural heat

to reduce all to melted slag,

before reforged into mightiest spirit

like a phoenix rising from ash

as fogged-crystal sky, blue as coldest frost

and glowing with a hidden fire

disintegrates in a wash of gold and smoke,

the shimmering emptiness behind takes over...

the earth is swallowed and destroyed,

the mountains are bare and grey,

the forests are cold and frozen,

the ponds hold life no more,

and the creeks and rivers of nature's

fleeting joy are now still and dead

like child corpses in bubonic graves...