When frost bites

That short period between seasons' change

Leaving thin layers and cases

Of translucent to white outlines

Like nature itself tried to redraw itself- cheating by tracing

Dying leaves in colours of mid-summer fires

Every bump, curl, and protruding vein replicated

In a fragile, temporary sheet of frostbite

Coated in layered piles of fine powder

The tiny crystals linking together- compacted for strength

Against the early morning winds

Clear skies breaking the dawn

Purples, pinks, and blue hues

Light refractions shining through the prismatic layers of earth's thin preservative blanket

Warming the world beneath

Small spokes of remaining green grasses poke beneath the crystalline sheets- thinning in progression of the morn

Sparse remaining licks of earth's flame mimicked leaves on thin branches

Growing heavy and dripping with saturation of the melting frost casings of its limbs and veins

Morning frost returning to dew

Until freezing over again under the moon

Till every limb is left bare