Seasons on Fire, by Edilson Afonso Ferreira

Autumn Leaves, by John Everett Millais (UK) 1856

Seasons on Fire
  
Four women in the field. 
Three young women and a little girl. 
Late afternoon, trying to accomplish her job, 
gathering a pile of leaves to make a bonfire 
and, then, like vestals of modern times,
they will be offering it to the sky;
more than odor of burning leaves, 
incense from departing summer.  
Executors and witnesses to the seasons’ change, 
to which, inevitably, all of us are chained.     
The two eldest feed the funeral pile, 
properly dressed in dark clothes, while the youngest,  
indifferent and incomprehensible to the moment,   
feeds herself.     
The land will become bare and virgin,
sanctified and prepared for the miracle of spring.   
In the background, the sun, that gilded the day, 
prepares itself for the retreat: 
will make its journey to brothers beyond horizons, 
remaining, however, its promise, never broken, 
of eternal and daily reborn.
 
Edilson Afonso Ferreira 

This poem was first published in The Lake.

Mr. Ferreira, 77 years, is a Brazilian poet who writes in English rather than in Portuguese. Widely published in international literary journals, he began writing at age 67, after his retirement as a bank employee.  Has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, and his book Lonely Sailor, One Hundred Poems, was launched in London, in November of 2018. He is always updating his works at www.edilsonmeloferreira.com.