Harvesting the Bodies

It was the November day
for harvesting the bodies
of the many flowering souls
who lifted arms
and smiling faces to God
all summer long.

I waited for the blue bachelor's buttons
and the brown husks of sunflowers,
cosmos pink,
and abundant purple moon flowers
as they gasped their last breath of the season--
as they fell to the earth to be gathered
and put to rest.

Such daisies danced near the black eyed Susans.
False indigo and bee balm,
mint and foxglove tumbled
after the blade and my small hands
said goodbye for the winter.

The sharp spade cut the skin of dirt and grasses open
just long enough to tuck the hearts of daffodils,
a few tulips, crocus, and snowdrops
into the cold chest of darkness
to wait for silence to unfold
one petal at a time.