Burning Leaves


     On Indian summer days
     When fallen leaves of red and gold
     Are burned -- a smoky haze
    
     Ascends; a gold-red blaze
     Of fiery sparks behold
     On Indian summer days.

     Through an acrid fragrant curtain gaze
     As fires (not forbade of old)
     Are burned -- a smoky haze.

     Though against the law in legal phrase
     Ecologist all scold
     On Indian summer days.

     Alas, a sad disgrace
     When leaves by villians bold
     Are burned -- a smoky haze

     And autumn's tale is told:
     Dry crackling leaves are rolled --
     On Indian summer days --
     Are burned -- a smoky haze.

  
     Note: For the Boston Branch (American Penwomen) poetry 
           contest 1981 -- a villanelle. 

           A villanelle is 5 tercets and a quatrain, the second
           lines of which frame one rhyme and the remaining lines
           another.