NaPoWriMo 4: Yield

Four days in and I'm starting to think about poetic form. I think that in the next few days I might experiment with a few different ways of writing, rather than doing what I've always done. All the same, I quite like today's effort, even if it is similar in style to others I have written before. It's autumn here, and I've been thinking about the new chill in the air, and about how the warmth of human skin becomes even more desirable when the temperatures cool. I have also been thinking about love and longing, and this poem reflects all of these themes.

Yield
Yield to me.
Outside the leaves of
English trees far from
home are shrivelling and
journeying to the ground.
Look once in my direction,
soften those limbs so
tired from combat and
let them wind around
my welcoming skin.
You have run so far
and found no shelter.
Now it is autumn in
this place of hill and
scrub and it is time
for you to surrender.
Give in to those of
us who have waited
while you struggled,
who have whispered
words of love into
ears that would listen
only to cries in battle.
It is time to stop chasing
after strength and glory.
Instead choose quiet
softness and warm
affection and the
embrace of the
one who knows that
the brash defiance of
summer must end.