Prelude to December

By Florence Boutwell

I’ve never seen squirrels busier

Than they were today,

Scrounging winter groceries

To hoard and hide away.

And flocks of geese, majestic

In autumn V formation,

Honked, were specks, then vanished

Toward a southern destination.

Mother, noting squirrels and geese

And dried leaves blown about,

Baked a loaf of tender bread

And locked the chill winds out.