Autumn Morning

Eyes, fallow-brown, bright.
Alight.

Her nose a wet, rosy pink.
Her paws scampering after me,
Tail wagging,

She awaits eagerly to go outside,

In the morning,
Still dark.

There is a faint sliver of moonlight,
And the yellow glow,
Of the porch light.

The marbled array,
Red, brown, and orange,
Of autumn leaves,
Are lost in the near darkness.

The sky,
Painted black and purple, deep as the ocean,
Stars still akindled, glowing in her eyes.

Quiet as the dead of night.
A sleeping world.

Gambolling,
She bounds freely in the bitter cool,
Morning air.

And she always returns to greet me again,
All her excitement still there.