The Sullen Woods

The dense silence of the
sullen woods is suddenly sliced
asunder by the piercing call
of a bluejay, its flight made
visible through the wind's
plucking of fall foliage from
their stubborn perch on branches
unprepared to surrender their
coloured burden in a frantic
shower hurling toward the 
forest floor. The canopy above
increasingly bare, dark branches 
limned against the sky,
where a pair of vultures
swoop and circle, the
wide dihedral of their wings
a matter of elemental grace.